


Pain, Prejudice and Dragons

by MoonbeamDancer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Sex, Suicide Attempt, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:19:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonbeamDancer/pseuds/MoonbeamDancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A patch of scales is all it took for Dean's life to go terribly wrong. What he thought was the truth, isn't and he's forced to run for his life from the only home he's ever known, learning about being a Dragonkin and a dragon's mate the hard way. If being tied to a stake and left as tribute counts as hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2013 spn_j2_bigbang on LJ. This is the longest story I have written thus far, so I'm just gonna stare at the word count for a second and be amazed. I've also never done so much research on images for cars for a story either then I have for this one... This story is the fault of/inspired by morrezela. Thanks to snow_white for the Alpha read, alibye for the beta, and to liliaeth for the art, which you can see on her journal on LJ.

The day he discovered his scales growing in was one of the worst in Dean's life. The sun beat down on Dean relentlessly and glinted off the old husks of cars scattered throughout the junkyard. Dean picked up a few nails and placed them in his mouth, grabbing one to nail a board in place as he worked on the fence that Bobby asked him to help repair. Dean worked on the fence quietly, stopping only to take his shirt off, wiping off the sweat from his skin.  
"Convince you to stop long enough to get a drink, son?" Bobby asked, a bottle of water in his hand.  
Dean hammered in the last nail and put the hammer down on the car he was using as a work bench.  
"Sounds good, thanks Bobby." He took the bottle and drank from it.  
"Everything okay? Your back is all red, you hurt yourself?" Bobby asked.  
"I don't know." Dean said, twisting to get a better look at his back. "But my back has been itching really badly lately."  
"Turn around, let me see." Bobby said. Dean nodded and showed Bobby his back, leaning against the car.

Bobby stepped in closer to get a better look at Dean's back. The redness was mainly concentrated on Dean's lower back, it had a bumpy, scaly look to it, like a bad patch of dry skin. Or rather it did until the light caught it.  
"Son of a _balls_!" Bobby swore, realizing what he was looking at. "Son of a goddamn bitch!" He stepped away from Dean and let loose a steady stream of profanity.  
Dean turned around. "What? What is it? What's wrong, is it some kind of cancer?" he babbled.  
Bobby stopped swearing and looked at Dean. "No you idgit, it's not cancer, you're Dragonkin."  
"What?!" Dean shrieked. "I can't be Dragonkin!" Dean started to hyperventilate at the thought of being...he couldn't even finish his thought, his father would kill him if it was true. The world went black as Dean fainted dead away, his head hitting the car's bumper on the way down.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Bobby said as Dean opened his eyes with a low groan. He was laying on Bobby's sofa and sat up with some help from Bobby.  
"I just had the strangest dream that I had had a rash on my back and that you told me I was Dragonkin." Dean took the aspirin and water that Bobby offered, swallowing them down.  
"How many fingers?" Bobby asked holding two in front of Dean.  
"Two." Dean replied after he drank the water.  
"Good. Follow my finger." Bobby moved his index finger from side to side and watched Dean's eyes. "You whacked your head when you fainted but it's not too bad. And it wasn't a dream, you really are Dragonkin, Dean."  
"How?" Dean demanded. "Neither of my parents are or were in Mom's case, dragons."  
"That's not actually true." Bobby admitted as he put away the first aid kit.  
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked.  
"Get comfortable, this may take a while." Bobby sat down in his chair and took a drink from the glass on his desk.

 

The first time Mary met a dragon, she didn't know it. That dragon was her older brother's girlfriend, a copper dragon by the name of Meridith. Kyle and Meridith met when Kyle went away to college, he had always thought that his parents were wrong in their thinking, an opinion he had kept to himself over the years. When he was a child he wondered why his family was so dead set against the dragons, dragons had never done him any harm. When he asked why, the response was to not ask questions, that the dragons were evil and deserved to be killed.

Kyle and Meridith met during freshmen orientation and it was love at first sight. Well more like second sight, they saw each other at orientation and met in a class they had together, Herbology.  
"Don't worry, she'll like you." Kyle reassured Meridith.  
"Are you sure?" Meridith asked, fussing with the silverware. Her hair glinted in the overhead lights, a fiery blend of red and copper. Her blue eyes flashed with worry.  
Kyle placed a hand over hers, the table was fine and set perfectly. Fussing with things was a nervous habit; one all dragons had when they were worried about something.  
"The table is fine, stop picking at it. Mary will love you, out of my whole family, she's the only one I want to meet you."  
"I thought you said your parents were trying to brainwash her into the fold, what if she hates me when she finds out I'm a dragon?" Meridith asked, putting down a spoon.  
"She won't" Kyle replied  
"But what if-"  
"She won't." Kyle repeated, this time more firmly.

Kyle had invited Mary to look at his school, they had some programs he knew she'd like and had told her that he had a surprise for her. The first meeting between Meridith and Mary went fine, the two liked each other and Mary enjoyed looking around the school and the town it was a part of; so much so that she decided to add it to her growing lists of schools to apply to for college. It was summer and the list would be narrowed down, but this one looked to be staying. They decided to tell Mary the truth a few days after her arrival.

Kyle dusted off his hands, the picnic was excellent and where they were, a meadow, was an good spot to show Mary, quiet and private.  
"There's another reason we wanted you here besides the school."  
"What?" Mary asked.  
Meridith and Kyle stood up. Meridith helped Mary to her feet and stepped away from the two.  
"Don't freak out at what happens next, okay?" Kyle asked.  
"I'm not going to hurt you, just watch." Meridith told Mary. She took another big step back and began to concentrate. An amber glow began to seep from her skin, getting brighter the harder she concentrated. There was a quick, outward burst of light and when it cleared, a copper dragon was standing where Meridith had been.

Mary stared in shock at the creature before her. A creature, that until now, she had assumed was another human.  
"She's a-" Mary started to say to Kyle. "You're a -" she gestured at Meridith.  
Kyle nodded as Mary gaped at the dragon in front of them.  
"She's a fucking _dragon_!" Mary burst out finally.  
"Yeah, she is." Kyle said, matter of factly.  
"You're _dating_ a dragon!"  
"Yeah, I am." Kyle replied.  
"You're dating a _dragon_!" Mary repeated as Meridith shifted back and came to stand next to Kyle. "Do Mom and Dad know? Wait, stupid question.."  
"No, they don't." Kyle admitted. "For obvious reasons." Kyle squeezed Meridith's hand. "I wanted you to meet her, because you're the only one who would listen to me and not just kill her on sight."

Mary just looked at Kyle. "Are you sure about this? I mean, aren't dragons supposed to be able to brainwash humans? Maybe what you're feeling isn't real at all." According to everything that Mary had learned growing up, dragons were evil vicious creatures that took humans for their own, either to eat or mate with. And her brother was with one, surely he couldn't actually love this thing? This girl?  
"And that's Mom and Dad talking right there." Kyle said. "Look at me Mary. I love her, nothing will ever change that, _ever_. I'm with her because I want to be, no brainwashing at all."  
"Have I ever hurt you?" Meridith asked.  
"No. You've been nothing but great to me and to Kyle." Mary remarked.  
"That's why Kyle wanted us to meet. He wanted you to see how dragons can really be. I'm not going to lie and say we're just misunderstood, but my family and I want nothing more then to be left alone. We don't want to hide."

"I know what Mom and Dad are trying to do with you and I wanted you to know the truth." Kyle admitted. "Yes, she's a dragon. Yes, I love her. No, she isn't brainwashing me, dragons can't do that."  
"We're able to speak telepathically with other dragons and with our mates, but that's it." Meridith elaborated.  
"So showing me the school was just a lie to get me out here?" Mary questioned.  
"No, I really did want you to see the school. But this was the other reason. I'm trusting you to not blab to Mom and Dad about Meridith. Can you do that?" Kyle asked.  
"What happens if I do tell them?"  
"We leave and you'll never see me again." Kyle replied. "I love you little sister, but if you can't be trusted, then I will run."  
"Are you really happy with her?" Mary asked softly.  
Kyle nodded.  
"Then I'll stay quiet."

Kyle and Meridith were married at night in secret. The only ones to attend were Mary, Meridith's parents and two friends, all sworn to keep quiet. It was soon after, that Mary began to openly rebel against her family.

 

"Mom's family was anti dragon? That explains why she never really wanted to talk about them. And Uncle Kyle is married to a dragon? What's she like?"  
"I never met her, but Mary enjoyed being around her." Bobby shifted in his chair before getting back to the story.

 

When John and Mary first met each other, it had been at a debate on if dragons deserved to been seen and treated as people and all the rights that went along with it. Mary was arguing for the pro dragon side, her arguments were well thought out and her reasoning clear. And while John didn't agree with what she was saying, she was interesting enough for him to want to talk to her after the debate. Mary looked at him warily when he introduced himself, but was willing to talk. They spent most of the night talking about dragons and their place in the world and why they're treated the way they were. While they were on different sides of the subject, they could agree to disagree and moved onto other subjects.

John's interest in Mary worked out in his favor when he came to her house and introduced himself to her mother. Mary wasn't home at the time, but he did manage to find out that their families ran in the same anti dragon circles. The Campbell family had just moved to town a few months ago, but their name preceded them. Both Deanna and Samuel were as anti dragon as his folks. Mary's mother loved the idea of John trying to help Mary see sense and come back into the fold.

"I don't know where she gets it from, not my side of the family, that's for sure." Deanna told John. "Her father _does_ have that very distant cousin that is foolish enough to think that dragons are just like us, but Mary's never met him. We made sure to raise both her and her brother right." She sighed. "Honestly John, I'd love for her to meet a nice boy like you and forget about all this nonsense and settle down. Married life is what Mary needs, not to be running around crusading for a bunch of animals."  
"That is part of the reason I'm here Ma'am. I'd like to take your daughter on a date, if that's all right with you."  
Deanna's face lit up like the sun and they began to plan and set a date.

 

"Hold on, Dad and _Grandma_ set up my parents?" Dean asked, draining his glass.  
Bobby nodded, getting up for another drink. Dean handed him his empty glass, asking for more water.  
"Yeah, they did. Your mother was not thrilled about it." Bobby came back into the living room, handing Dean his glass, and sitting back down.

 

Mary looked at herself in the bedroom mirror and sighed heavily to herself. She looked nice, her jeans were new and the shirt had just been washed. Mary eyed her small collection of make up and picked up the mascara, swiping it across her lashes. She knew exactly what was going on, her mother had set her up on another date.

Oh well. At least this time she already knew the guy...

It was another attempt on her parents part to make her see what they referred to as 'common sense', and she thought of as 'barbaric hatred and slaughter'. John at the very least, could argue _why_ he hated dragons intelligently. Mary hoped she could get through dinner without tossing her drink in his face. That alone would be a vast improvement over her last 'date'. Her last date had also tried to cop a feel, Mary stabbed his hand that had been on her thigh with her fork, kneed him in the balls and fractured his wrist when she shoved him away. The fall to the ground is what fractured his wrist. There was no guarantee of things going smoothly but she hoped they would. Despite their differences on dragons, she did like the fact that John could hold a decent conversation. Mary added some lip gloss, brushed her hair one more time and went downstairs to meet John. 

They got out of the house with a minimum amount of embarrassment from her mother and John led her to his car, a blue 1969 Dodge Charger.  
"Nice car. Thank you." Mary said as he opened the door for her. The thank you was more surprised than normal, normally dates didn't open doors for her.  
"You're welcome and thanks." John replied, shutting the door once she was in the car. He got in as well and they were off.

John took Mary out to a little Italian restaurant that he liked and hoped that she would as well, a place called The Wolves Den. They sat and ordered and spent their time having a rather lively debate on dragons again. This time John was prepared and was able to back up his defence even better then when they had first met. Mary listened as John not only brought Darwin into his defence, but also the church.

"Evolution _and_ religion, that's new. I've never heard anyone use both in their arguments before, normally it's one or the other." She took a sip of her drink. "Are you a religious man?" she asked.  
"No. I just think they make a lot of sense is all." John said as they ate.  
They verbally sparred back and forth so long that the remainder of their meal went cold and the manager had to politely kick them out. Both Mary and John looked around, every table but theirs was set for the next day. They apologized for the inconvenience and left so the staff could finish closing up.

The debate continued as John pulled into Mary's driveway and shut off the engine, once again getting her door for her. They spent twenty minutes alone leaning against the Charger, picking each other's arguments apart.  
"I hate to bring things to a halt, but look at that." John pointed over Mary's shoulder at the sky. The sky was getting brighter as they watched.

They had stayed out all night.

"My throat is killing me and as fun as this was, can we please pick it up a couple of days from now?" John asked.  
"Um, sure." Mary agreed, slightly shocked that they had stayed out all night. "I really should get inside."  
"I'll walk you to the door." John replied.  
"I had a nice time tonight, or last night really." Mary said as they came up the path.  
"Me too. I'll call you in a couple of days, okay?" John asked.  
Mary nodded. "Sure, but you don't have my number."  
John grinned. "I can get it from my Mom, it's how I got your address."  
"Oh." Mary said.  
John bid her goodnight and Mary let herself into the house.

She was half way up the stairs when her mother appeared at the top.  
"Mary, are you just getting home?" she asked.  
"Um, yeah." Mary admitted.  
"Don't let your father know. Did you have a good time?" Deanna asked, beginning to come down the stairs.  
"Yeah. We spent all our time arguing, but it was fun." Mary said, a half smile on her lips.  
"Oh dear."  
"No really, it was." Mary said assuredly.  
"Well as long as you enjoyed yourself." Deanna responded, walking past Mary.  
Mary nodded and continued to her room.

One date led to two, which led to three and soon John and Mary were seeing each other on a regular basis. For the most part, they got along fantastically, except when it came to dragons.  
But what John didn't know was that Mary was also seeing a dragon, no one did, it was one of her most guarded secrets.

The dragon that Mary was seeing was called David. David was a few years older then her, with sandy brown hair, olive skin and hazel eyes. They had met at a Dragons Without Mates support group, a group dedicated to helping dragons find their mates and helping those who had lost theirs. DWM was known to provide help and resources in a dragon's or dragonkin's search for its mate, and provide a safe shelter for dragons in heat without a mate, if they didn't already have a shelter. But its main cause was helping dragons deal with the loss of their mate. Mary was a surrogate mate and her main job was to provide the dragon someone to spend their heat with, someone to talk to and a body to hold. All dragons with a surrogate were required to take the provided herbal remedies and while sex wasn't frowned upon between a dragon and their surrogate, DWM wanted both parties to be fully aware of and in control of what happened.

In the event that a child was created from the union, the parents were given the choice to raise the child together, put it with a dragon friendly family, or to abort. The last option was rarely chosen and usually only in cases where either the mother's or baby's health was in danger. The window of time for that option was also rather short, because the fetus would soon grow its shell during the second trimester, and that only came off when the child was born. Most dragons raised their children either with or without the surrogate or it was adopted.

Mary met David and his mate Leeta at a meeting, DWM had helped Leeta to find David. The three had bonded together and after Leeta's death, Mary and David had stayed friends. Mary knew that the main reason that David asked for her to be his surrogate was her resemblance to Leeta, and that was alright with her, she didn't mind helping a friend sort through his grief. Things started innocently enough between them, Mary stayed with David at his apartment and the most sexual thing they did was sleep in the same bed and have Mary hold David through the worst parts of his heat. The majority of David's heats were spent holding hands and just having Mary around. They had kissed on occasion but that was it. None of that changed when she met John. She never told John what she did to help the dragons, he wouldn't have liked it at all. David knew about John and couldn't believe that his friend would associate with someone like him. David had heard about what John's family was capable of.

"It's mainly to shut my parents up." she told him one night while they made dinner. "But I do like him."  
"What's he like?" David asked, picking out a radish from the salad Mary was making and nibbling it. "Besides the anti dragon thing."  
Mary slapped his hand, picking up the last of the veggies and mixing them into the bowl. "No too bad, he's very passionate in what he believes in."  
"More like a fanatic." David snorted, as the oven timer went off.  
"You don't even know him." Mary shot back.  
"I don't need to, to know his type. Promise me you'll watch out for yourself. I'd hate for anything to happen to you." He got the roast out of the oven, sans oven mitts. He shut the oven door with his elbow.  
"It really freaks me out when you do that." Mary said, beginning to set the table.  
"That's why I like doing it." David snickered.  
Mary just sighed, shook her head, and continued setting the table.

Things changed drastically late one afternoon for John and Mary when they were parked out at Panther Canyon. Panther Canyon was named so, because you used to be able to see panthers in it. But no one had seen any in around fifty years or so, due to hunting, so it was mainly used as a make out spot by teens and young college students. They were sitting on the hood, eating take out and talking, when the subject of John's car came up.

"Man, I love this car. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it." John patted the hood, smiling at the car.  
"Seriously? What if you have a family some day? A Charger isn't the best for that." Mary stole a french fry from John and ate it.  
"I can get a bigger car, besides I don't see that happening anytime soon." John protested. "Not to mention that there's plenty that you can do with this car."  
Mary snorted as John stole one of her fries. "Like what? Flip Boss Hogg the finger and jump it over a pile of dirt or a haystack? And what other car would you get anyway?"  
John coughed as he drank his soda, trying not to laugh. "That would be fun and you know it, and I'd get, I don't know maybe an Impala or something."

"An Impala? That's the best you can do?" Mary looked at John. "So what else would this car be good for, it's not like you can have sex in it."  
"Yes, you can." John retorted.  
"Where? Look at those seats." Mary pointed at the bucket seats in the front. "There's no room."  
"Not in the front, in the back, plenty of room there." John got off the hood of the car.  
"And you know this how? Have you had sex in this car?" Mary asked, staying where she was.  
John laughed. "No, but I know there's room." He opened the passenger door. "Look I'll prove it. Come here."  
"Oh really? No thanks, I'll stay here." Mary tossed the remainder of her fries into the paper bag.  
"I'm not gonna do anything. Just come here." John said.

Mary looked at him and hopped off the hood. "No way you could have sex in this car, there's no room at all."  
"Just get in the back."  
Against her better judgement Mary sat on the back bench seat and after some maneuvering, both she and John were lying on the seat. Mary shifted her hips and looked at John. "See? Told you, no room." She started trying to get up.  
"Well, not lying down obviously, but if you were sitting in my lap or had your feet out the window, we'd have room." John replied. If she shifted or rubbed against him anymore... John moved to get up and pulled Mary into his lap.  
"See?" he asked.  
Mary shifted and made herself more comfortable. "Fine, there's room. But what if I were wearing a skirt?"  
"Are you _trying_ to be difficult?" John asked staring at her.  
"No. I just wanna hear your answer." Mary smirked, rocking her hips.  
John groaned under his breath. "Yes, you are." He grabbed Mary's hips and thrust up. "You so totally are." he mumbled, leaning up to kiss her.

The windows had fogged up completely and the sun was well into setting by the time Mary and John were able to pull themselves together and off each other. Mary's bra might have been left behind shoved into the crevice of the back seat, only to be found later by John when he was cleaning, and grateful that neither of his parents had seen it. And John's shirt collar might have been a little stretched out, but neither of them would tell. This happened a couple different times and would have been fine if their parents hadn't found out.

Mary had been talking on the phone with a friend when the subject came up and Deanna overheard it. Mary wasn't going into great detail, but enough that her mother could put two and two together and get four. Deanna immediately went to Samuel, who in turn went to John's parents. Both John and Mary were sat down in the Winchester's living room and a "talk" ensued. It consisted of their parents freaking out on them and just generally carrying on because they found out their children were having sex.  
"Oh good god, it's not like she's pregnant." John burst out in the middle of one of his father's speeches.  
"She could be!" both their mothers chorused. "What if she is?"  
"Are you?" John asked Mary. With the exception of the first time at Panther Canyon, they had been careful, so far they had been lucky.  
"No." Mary said. This was getting ridiculous and she said so.

"You're right. This has got to stop." Samuel agreed. "The two of you will be getting married."  
"What?" Mary and John yelled."Why?"  
"It has already been decided, the wedding will happen next week." Samuel said.  
Both Mary and John sat in stunned silence. Well, this was new. And out of nowhere. What the hell? Being made to get married because they had decided to have sex with each other? Mary had known her parents, along with being dragon haters, had been a little old fashioned, but this was too much. Way too much. Mary got up from the sofa and walked out, the thunk of the front door following behind her. John looked at their parents before getting up himself.  
"Nice going, I was going to ask her anyway, but thanks for screwing that up." John shook his head walking out of the room.

John left the house, scouring the street for Mary. He found her half a block away, the girl could move when she was pissed. John ran after her, catching up after a couple of minutes.  
"Hey." he said, pulling Mary to a stop.  
"What?" she asked snippily.  
"Nothing, just hey. And to apologize for that mess back there, I had no idea it was going to happen." John squeezed her hand and they started to walk again.

They walked in silence for a bit before Mary threw her hands in the air and burst out "I can't believe they're making us do this! _Just_ for having sex, like it was something wrong."  
"Would it help to know that I was gonna ask anyway?" John asked.  
"What?" Mary stopped in her tracks and looked at John, confused.  
"I know the timing couldn't be worse, but I was going to ask you anyway. Not right this second, but sometime this year, I was gonna ask." John admitted softly.  
"Why? We disagree on-"  
"On one thing. It's not the end of the world, lots of couples do." John remarked, a smile playing across his face. "And since our parents seem so set on it happening, we should be a little happy, maybe?"  
"I don't know John, we're so young..."  
"I don't care about that. Do you want me to ask? Because I will, right now." 

John dropped to one knee in front of Mary. "I planned to have a ring for this, but, Mary Campbell will you marry me?"  
"Seriously?" Mary asked.  
John nodded. "Dead serious."  
"Not because our parents are making us?" Mary questioned, utterly floored that John was doing this.  
"I want to marry you, Mary Campbell. Will you marry me?" John asked again.  
Marry nodded, her hands shaking slightly. "Yes."  
John's smile grew bigger as he stood up to kiss her.

 

She was hiding something, John didn't know what it was, but he could tell that something was going on. Mary had been quiet lately and was coming home late more frequently. John began to snoop around and hadn't come up with much, a quick check of her credit cards revealed nothing, and the most incriminating evidence was the faint scent of what he thought was dragon musk in her car. 

He had even called her parents to see if they knew anything. He got a hold of her dad and explained the situation.  
"This is how it all started with us. She was staying out late and coming home at odd hours. I hired a Private Investigator at one point and he found her going to pro dragon rallies."  
John swallowed and clutched the phone harder, his palm suddenly sweaty. Could Mary be involved in dragon things behind his back? Why would she do that, she had always been up front about it before. He and Samuel talked for a few more minutes before hanging up.

Mary glanced in her rear view mirror, yeah he was still back there. He was three or four cars back, but Mary could still make out the Charger that was in line behind her. It was totally possible that she was being paranoid and that it wasn't John's car, but she decided to err on the side of caution and when the light turned green, drove to her brother's house. 

John pulled over down the street, and watched as Mary pulled into the driveway of a nice one store house, and knocked on the door before going inside. He waited a few minutes and then drove up the street, stopping at the group of mail boxes when he saw the mailman.  
"Excuse me, do you know who lives in that house over there?" He pointed to the house Mary had gone in to.

The mailman, an older gentleman, looked and shuddered with disgust. "A dragon and her lover. It's terrible how those things are allowed to live amongst us, they should be taken out into the street and shot."  
"Thank you." John told him and drove away, glancing once in his mirror at the house as he left. A dragon. Mary had gone into the house of a _dragon_. He gripped the steering wheel with a worried hand and felt the sudden urge for a drink. He drove home, found the nearest bar and proceeded to try and drown the voice that kept screaming that Mary was cheating on him.

Mary watched from the blinds as John left. She waited until he was out of sight and then waited for another twenty minutes before thanking her brother and leaving to see David.

Later that night Mary came home after John's night at the bar and turned on the living room light as she walked in to the house. She looked over and jumped a foot in the air. John was sitting in the living room, a bottle and glass on the table.  
"Jeeze John! You scared the hell out of me." She shut the door and came further into the living room.  
"Where have you been?" John asked, his speech slurred.  
"Out. How much have you had to drink?" Mary asked. The bottle was somewhere around a fourth to half empty, and she wasn't sure how full it had been to begin with.  
"Out where?" John demanded..  
"My brother's." Mary replied.  
"Brother's?" John stated at her as things began to filter through. Namely that Mary had asked Kyle to attend their wedding and that her parents had thrown a fit about it. "But- but your family disowned him when they-"  
"Found out he married a dragon. And it was my father who did and Mom followed suit. He's my brother and I still love him, so I kept in touch with him." Mary told John. Mary didn't know how Samuel and Deanna found out, it was never from her, but it caused them to throw Kyle away and they never spoke of or to him as far as she knew. They most certainly hadn't at the wedding, they went out of their way to pretend that he wasn't there.

"But a dragon lives at that house." John argued as Mary came over to him, sitting on the table in front of him.  
"Yeah, that's his wife." she spelled out for him.  
"Oh yeah." John said. Maybe the information would stick this time.  
"Come on, you need to go to bed." Mary moved to help John up and to the bedroom.

Mary put up the bottle and rinsed out the glass. After she was sure that John was asleep, she called Kyle.  
"John definitely saw me at your place today."  
"Wonderful." Kyle muttered through the line. "You're playing with fire sis, you sure to want to do this?"  
Mary glanced down the hallway toward the bedroom door. "I need to, David's going into heat soon, he'll need me."  
"Okay then. Next time, use one of our cars, we'll be here."  
"Thanks Kyle."  
They talked for a bit longer hammering out details and then hung up for the night.

The second time that John decided to follow Mary, he stayed a little further back and she went to her brother's as before. Mary knew he was there the entire time as she pulled in and knocked at the door. John watched as Kyle let her in and waited for a bit.  
"He followed me again." Mary told him as she walked in.  
"Okay, let's wait a few minutes, see what he does." Kyle replied.  
"Let's go out to dinner, see if he follows." Meridith suggested after John had been waiting about ten minutes.  
"Good idea. He should get bored after an hour or so of seeing me visit with you guys."  
They walked out the door and got into Kyle's car. John followed as they drove to one of Kyle and Meridith's favorites, making sure to stay a few cars back.

The three were soon seated at a booth in a window and Mary watched John pull into the lot, picking a spot under a tree, from the corner of her eye. "He's here."  
"Well then, I suggest that we enjoy dinner." Meridith said, picking up her menu."  
John left as they got their desserts from the waitress.

"So does you're husband know you're still seeing me?" David asked Mary.  
"He doesn't know about you at all." Mary replied. They were in her car on their way to do some household shopping. David tended to prefer the farmer's market for his produce and an organic butcher shop for his meat, but there were still items he needed from the city market.  
"Why not?" They pulled into the store's parking lot and got out of the car.

"It would cause a lot of fighting and I really don't want to get into that with him." Mary pocketed her keys and they went inside. "As far as he knows, I'm spending time with Kyle. We live close enough to each other now, that it's plausible, we're making up for lost time."  
"And where does Kyle actually live?" David asked. "And does he know you've involved him in this?"  
"It's his idea, so yeah, he knows. And he's over in Kansas City."  
"As in where we are, Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas?" David questioned, grabbing a cart.  
"Kansas." Mary replied.

David snorted. "Well, we can't all live on the awesome side of town now, can we?"  
"Don't give me that Missouri vs. Kansas crap. You know it's bullshit." Mary said. "Gimme the list, you push."  
David handed her the grocery list and a pen. "But it's so much fun..."  
"Just push the cart."

 

"So how did you and Mom meet, since you know all of this?" Dean asked playing with the condensation on his glass.  
"I'm getting to that, don't worry." Bobby shifted in his chair.

 

A couple of days later, John's car began to act up and he took it in to be checked out. Luckily for them, he and Mary lived close by to a decent garage and he could easily walk home to borrow her car to do what he needed. It was the middle of the afternoon and he came home to Mary talking a nap. He picked her keys up from her nightstand and gently shook her shoulder.  
"Hey Mary? I need to use your car, that okay? I'll be back later."  
Mary sleepily blinked her eyes and nodded when what he said filtered through her sleep fogged brain. "Sure, have fun. What happened to yours?"  
"At the garage. Richard's looking at it." John replied.  
"Oh. Mkay." She burrowed down into the blankets and drifted back off. John left the room and quietly shut the front door behind him.

About a minutes later, everything that had happened cycled back through Mary's brain. She sat straight up in bed, now wide awake. This was not a good thing, not at all. David had been in her car recently and if John found out, he'd lose his mind. Mary groaned to herself, the desire for sleep gone. She'd have to wait until John got back to find out anything.

"What the hell is this?" John demanded, storming into the house a couple hours later.  
"What's what?" Mary asked.  
"This!" John thrust his hand at her. In his palm lay a scale, a shiny golden copper one. "I found it as I was turning into the driveway. It fell out from between the seats."  
Mary looked at the scale. "It's one of Meridith's." she lied. It wasn't, but some of David's scales looked close enough to some of Meridith's, that she could plausibly lie about it. "It must have happened when I was visiting with Kyle."  
John looked at her, the fire in his eyes dashed. "Oh. That makes sense."  
Mary nodded. "Uh huh." She took the scale from him, walking into the kitchen to throw it away. _"That was close."_ she thought as she tossed David's scale into the trash. That night while she slept, John took the scale out of the trash can.

The next day, John came over to Kyle's house, claiming that he wanted to start over and have a fresh start with Kyle and Meridith. Both Kyle and Meridith found it odd but were willing to listen to him. John smiled as they let him in. John agreed to a tour of the house and watched as the light played over the scattering of scales on Meridith's skin. The scale in his pocket didn't match, not if you looked really close. After he saw this, John quickly excused himself and left the house.

Kyle called Mary as John's car left. "Hey sis, your husband was just here saying that he wanted a fresh start with us."  
"Really?" Mary asked. "Okay... Is everything okay?"  
"I don't know, but he was watching Meridith and he left after like twenty minutes or so." Kyle said. "He seemed agitated. Everything okay with you two?"  
"He used my car yesterday and found..." Mary's voice trailed off as she looked at the trash can.  
"Found what?" Kyle asked.

Mary rushed over to the trash can, she hadn't taken out the trash yet, and began to look through it. "He found one of David's scales yesterday and I said it was one of Meridith's, they have similar coloring." She came up empty handed, the scale was gone. "Shit, he must have the scale and came to compare it to Meridith's."  
"Oh crap." Kyle hissed.  
Mary nodded. "Yeah, that sounds accurate. I gotta go Kyle, I need to take care of this." Mary hung up the phone and dialed another number.

"You need me to _what_?" Bobby asked.  
"I need you to stage a car accident with John." Mary repeated. "David's heat is coming and I need to be there. I can't do that if my husband keeps following me. Please Bobby."  
Bobby sighed deeply. "I know I'll probably regret this, but alright, I'll help. What do you need and when?"  
"Nothing that would land you or him in the hospital, but enough to keep you busy for a few hours tomorrow night."  
"What time are you leaving?" Bobby asked, making a few notes on what cars he had ready.  
"Late afternoon, a little before sunset."  
"I'll be waiting. See you then Mary."

Bobby pulled together an old junker truck and waited for Mary. She had called that morning while John was at work and told him what John's car looked like and the route she took to get to David's. And that John had developed the habit of following around three to four cars back. So Bobby waited on a side street and opened the bottle of whiskey he had brought for the occasion. He quickly splashed a bit of the alcohol on his shirt and turned the engine over, putting the car in gear. A few a few minutes Mary went by and Bobby rolled the truck forward counting off in his head as he sped up.

Bobby timed it perfectly, he ran right into John, hitting him in the side towards the rear of his car. There wasn't a scratch on John, but his trunk was crushed rather well on one side and the window on the rear driver's side was shattered. The car would _not_ be driving any time soon. Mary was able to go on to David's with no problem as Bobby got out of his truck, briefly seeing her car in the distance, before turning his attention to John and acting the part of the drunk. He hoped Mary appreciated what he was doing.

Mary pulled into David's complex, she was cutting it close this time, the sun was already setting and David's heats tended to be more intense around this time and as the moon rose. She got out of her car, locking the door and made her way to David's apartment, very happy that he lived on the first floor. She hadn't even finished knocking when the door was pulled abruptly open, David standing in the other side. His scales were showing more and he growled as he yanked her into the apartment, slamming the door behind them.

Across from David's complex was a gas station and filling up his car was one Martin Creaser, but everyone called him Marty. He was waiting for the tank to fill when Mary drove by. Or at least he thought it was her. He watched as the woman got out of the car and yes, it _was_ her. Marty watched her be yanked into an apartment, catching a glimpse of wings and light bouncing off scales before the door slammed shut. Holy... what the hell was Mary doing in the lair of a dragon? Marty reached in his pocket for some change and fumbled out a quarter, nearly dropping it in the process. John would want to know about this. He ran across the parking lot and dialed John from the payphone.

 

John looked at the complex that Marty had pulled up to. It was nice, was in a good neighborhood, and was fairly nondescript.  
"That's her car right?" Marty asked, pointing to a red Toyota four door.  
John nodded numbly, they were in the right place, he recognized the bumper stickers. "Stay here." he told Marty and got out of Marty's truck.  
Marty nodded and told John which direction he had seen Mary go in, which helped John narrow down which building she could be in. After several minutes of looking, John found the apartment that he wanted. The blinds were semi open in one of the windows in the ground floor apartment and John could see Mary through them, she appeared to be talking to someone he couldn't see.

There was movement in the apartment and John could finally see who she had been talking to. It was a guy and he was a _dragon_ on top of that! John could see his scales and his wings were flared out; this one must be near a mating cycle. John watched as the dragon embraced his wife and began to kiss her. He saw red when Mary began to reciprocate and kiss him back. He had known that Mary liked dragons, but he was totally unaware that it was this bad. She let those foul creatures touch her. John growled as the dragon kissed down Mary's neck and made short work of her blouse. He turned away as the fabric fell to the floor, instead going back to Marty and the truck. Mary's place was among the humans, it was time she remembered that.

"Well?" Marty asked as John got in.  
"It's her. We need to go back to my house. Now."  
Marty looked at John. "I thought you'd-"  
"Just do it Marty!" John snapped, cutting the other hunter off.  
"Okay then." Marty replied. "But if it was _my_ wife..."  
"We're coming back, there's just something I need at home." John said and then gave Marty directions back to his house.

The bullets needed were in the safe, stored in a wooden box. They were called Fireflies and Marty grinned when John opened the box to load his revolver. The bullets were packed with sulfur and powdered brimstone, silver shrapnel, and blessed with holy water. They went back to the complex, John telling Marty to stay with the vehicle. John quietly and quickly picked the lock on the door and entered the apartment. The entire place stank of sex and dragon pheromones and judging from the amount of noise tapering off from the bedroom, John had no problem knowing where they were. Mary had never been as enthusiastic with him. So she not only liked being touched by these filthy animals, she enjoyed fucking them too. John picked up Mary's blouse and headed for the bedroom.

Moonlight streamed through the bedroom window as John entered the room, his gun pointed at the couple on the bed. Mary lay on her side, leaning against the animal that masqueraded as a person, like what they had done wasn't wrong and inhuman.  
"Get away from her." John growled.  
"What are you doing here?" Mary asked, sitting up in bed the sheets clutched to her chest.  
David hissed at John, how _dare_ this man come into his nest and threaten his mate!

"How could you?" John asked Mary. "How can you betray me and our vows like this and share a bed with that thing?" Both David and Mary slid to the foot of the bed, David staying close to Mary, every instinct screaming to protect his mate.  
When they reached the foot, Mary stood in front of David. "He isn't a thing, and if you're going to shoot him, you'll have to go through me first."  
"What you're doing with that thing is wrong, it isn't even _human_ and yet, you lay with it." John hissed.  
"He's my friend and what I do with him is none of your business John. Once more, if you're going to shoot him, you'll have to do it through me." 

John's heart broke hearing that his wife would choose to side with the monsters. He swallowed once and steadied his hand, making sure he had the two of them in his sights.  
"If you insist on standing with that animal..." he said.

David had been watching John the entire time, he was serious, John really would kill her to get to him. Before either of them could say or do anything, he shoved Mary out of the way and leapt at John, forcing John to shoot him. Mary fell on the bed and screamed when the gun went off. She hit the floor and scrambled over to where David was, blood pooling around him.  
"David? David, answer me!" she cried, shaking his shoulders. David looked at her, choking on his blood. He tried to talk, but blood just welled at his lips, a dribble of it sliding down his chin. Mary slapped her hands over the wound, a feeble attempt to slow the blood.  
"It'll be okay. I'll get help and you'll be fine." A part of her knew she was lying, that David was dying fast in front of her, but she pushed it back down in fierce denial.

John watched as his wife cried over this lizard and tried to save it. "Mary." he said, trying to get her attention. "Get over here, we can forget about this and start over. I can make sure no one knew we were here and it'll be like it never happened. I can forgive you and we can go on, if you just come over here now."  
Mary looked up from David, her face streaked with tears, one hand still over the chest wound, the other tangled with David's. "No. You're a monster, I'm not leaving him."

Hearing that, the part of John that still hoped that this was all a mistake, that desperately wanted it to be so, died. It shriveled up into a dry husk and blew away. John grabbed Mary by the hair and yanked her up and away from the dragon. John raised his gun to David's head, the dragon watching with glassy eyes, aimed and pulled the trigger.

"Get dressed, someone will have heard that." John growled at her, tossing Mary the shirt he had picked up.  
"How could you?" Mary asked numbly, blouse hanging from her hand. "He never-"  
"It tried to _attack_ me." John hissed.  
"He was _defending_ me John, _not_ attacking you." Mary replied, the numbness beginning to fade away.  
"I said get dressed!" John took Mary's blouse from her hands and put it on her, rushing to get her dressed as there was a knock on the door. John took Mary by the wrist and hustled her out of the bedroom. 

"Police! Open up!"  
"Thank god you're here." John said opening the front door to let the officers, both of them men, one older than the other, in.  
"We got a call about gunshots fired here." said one of the officers.  
"Yes sir. My wife was kidnapped by the dragon that lives here, I was forced to subdue it." John said.  
"No, I wasn't, you killed him." Mary argued, glaring at John.  
"Forgive her please, the brainwashing by that _animal_ is still affecting her." John told the officers, speaking over Mary.  
"Go call for a bus and backup, we'll need to secure the scene." The older officer told the younger one. He nodded and ducked out to go back to the car to call.

The older officer turned his attention back to Mary and John. "We'll need to talk to you both about what happened."  
Mary watched as more officers, crime scene techs and EMTs crawled over David's apartment. Over and over she told her story. Yes, she was John's wife. Yes, she knew where she was. No, the dragon had _not_ brainwashed her, despite the propaganda that said so, dragons couldn't do that. She was here of her own free will and was this dragon's surrogate mate. That last part of her interview was ignored every time, the officers and EMTs saying that it was just the brainwashing talking and she'd be back to her normal self after some time away from the dragon.

"His name is David!" Mary wanted to scream. "Not 'the dragon', not 'the animal' or 'the creature'! _David!_ " She shuddered as the EMTs rolled a gurney back through the living room, the sheet covering David bright and sticky with his blood.  
"We'll need to take her to Glenham for observation, make sure there are no lasting side effects." an officer told John. John nodded and Mary was soon on her way.

Glenham was a cold desolate stone building several miles out of town. It was mainly used to house the criminally insane, but they also did a rather nice business in "rehabilitating" the so called victims of the dragons. Mary was admitted and once deemed not a threat, put into the minimal security wing. Glenham was a living nightmare for Mary, one she quickly learned to deal with. Whenever she tried to tell the truth of what really happened, the doctors always disagreed with her, telling her that she had been brainwashed into thinking that, and that once she accepted it, her healing could truly begin. Until she did, they were getting nowhere.

Mary knew they were wrong and that most of the "victims" here, were really victims of families who didn't care that their loved ones loved a dragon, they just wanted to be rid of them. The orderlies weren't paid to care as well and more than one had called Mary a scale slut to her face. Scale whore and fire breather were other names use to describe those who chose to lay with dragons. Scale slut and scale whore were rather obvious in their insulting nature, and fire breather sounded pretty until you realized what sexual act it was insinuating. Mary ignored all of it and maintained her story as the truth until she had been in there a little over a month and her period was late.

It was around then that she began to waver in her conviction around her psychiatrist, Dr. Erica Cartwright. When she did, Dr. Cartwright congratulated her on taking the first step to recovery and began to work with Mary on "healing the damage done by that nasty reptile.". Mary didn't really care what the fuck Dr. Cartwright thought as long as it got her out before she started to show. She would begin to show around four or five months and the shell, if it was David's, would begin to form around six months. The sooner she was out and back with John, the better she would be able to convince him that the baby was his. Otherwise this baby wouldn't stand a chance.

The reunion between Mary and John went well, all things considered, she said all the right things and was able to confirm her pregnancy. Telling John that she was pregnant with "his" child was a hard thing to do. When the doctor told her how far along she was and the expected due date, she knew the chances of it being David's were very good. Luckily the dietary needs and urges of a pregnant human female and a female dragon were very similar.

The shell growing around the baby was a big tip off. She was lucky in that John hadn't been at the doctor's with her when it was discovered. When John asked how the appointment went, she told him it was fine, but that the baby hadn't wanted to show what it was. It was technically the truth, with the shell forming around the baby, they wouldn't know what the baby was until it was born. The night Mary went into labor, was the night she became very worried about her life and that of her child.  
"It's moved into position, when I tell you to push Mary, do it." The doctor said as he checked on both mother and baby. The nurse squeezed Mary's hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead.  
"You're doing just fine dear. First child?" she asked as a way to distract Mary.  
Mary gasped as the baby moved inside her. "Yes." she whimpered, clenching her teeth.  
"Push!" the doctor told Mary. And again. And again. And again.

After what felt like an eternity, Mary gave birth to a blue and gold swirled egg, the size of a baby. The doctor startled at the sight of the egg, he had not been expecting this at all. The egg began to twitch in his hands, so he quickly moved to set it on some towels and the nurse saw to Mary while the egg shuddered and rocked in its makeshift nest.  
"Is it okay? What is it?" Mary asked.  
"An egg." the doctor replied as it began to crack open. 

John wasn't going to like this. The doctor knew of his family and that they'd want the baby killed on the spot. The doctor couldn't bring himself to do it, his oath to help those it need and to harm none forbid it. He sighed to himself and began to clean the baby up; the child would have a long hard road ahead of him. As soon as the baby was clean, he was wrapped in a warm blanket and handed to Mary, along with a fragment of his shell. Mary memorized the colors on it before throwing it away with the others. As much as she wanted to keep it, it was simply too dangerous a thing to do.

Mary watched John interact with Dean. She had gotten lucky in the fact that Dean looked more like her, than David and that there was no visible sign of his dragon heritage. Yet. She hoped it never would but vowed to be ready just in case.

 

Dean was silent, the glass empty in his hands. "Dad did that?"  
Bobby nodded. "Your mother risked a lot to make sure you and your brother would be all right."  
"I remember a little. They always clashed on the subject of dragons. She seemed a little sad sometimes."  
"She didn't want you boys to grow up to be like your father." Bobby agreed.

 

Mary looked at the stick in disbelief, according to it, she was pregnant. Again. Mary blinked and looked again. Yep, that was a plus sign. After nearly four years of being able to keep from getting pregnant, it had happened. Mary wasn't sure if she should be happy or scared at the thought of another baby. She settled on a mix of both. She would love this child but wasn't happy about having another child exposed to John's hateful way of thinking. With her choice made, Mary tossed the test away and went to tell John.

John held Sam very carefully, he was so small, John was afraid of hurting him. John glanced over at Mary and smiled at her. She smiled when he commented on Sam's size.  
"He's a baby, he'll grow." she ran her hand through Dean's hair as he slept curled up next to her. "Soon he'll be as big as Dean."

John looked at both of the children that his wife claimed were his, wanting to believe it and not being able to completely.

 

"Go home Dean, you did fine today. I can finish the rest." Bobby said, standing up.  
Dean stood, handing Bobby his glass and nodded to himself.

The bike ride home didn't take very long but when Dean walked in the door John demanded to know what had happened.  
"I'm fine. Just had a fall at work is all." Dean replied. "I'm gonna go lay down, let me know when dinner's ready."  
John went to get the first aid kit just in case, he wanted a look at Dean to make sure he was fine. John walked in without knocking and saw Dean standing in front of his mirror, looking at his back.

When he saw the swirling vine of gold scales along Dean's lower back, John lost his mind and the kit dropped to the floor. Dean grabbed for his shirt and turning his back away from John, tried to put it on. John slammed Dean up against the wall, cracking Dean's skull against it which sent stars shooting through Dean's vision. "I always suspected you weren't mine." he accused, throwing Dean to the bed, pinning him down by the back of his neck. John ran a hand down Dean's back, they were real.

The scales were the most noticeable along Dean's lower back, the scales were shiny and gilded and had already begun to harden. They also had begun to wind their way up Dean's back and branch out onto his sides. John made a sound of disgust at the sight of the scales. 

The ones on Dean's upper back and shoulders were still growing in, they were still pale and soft to the touch. Dean managed not to scream when the first lash of John's belt hit.

"That tramp! I knew it, she did cheat on me!" John snarled, the belt hitting Dean again. John went on a tyrannical rant about Mary and what a cheating whore she was, a fire sucker that preferred the touch of an animal to a human. On and on he went, all the while whipping Dean with his belt. By the time John was done, Dean had passed out from the pain and had screamed his throat raw. He came to when he felt something prodding him.

"Wake up Dean!" he heard Sam say frantically. Sam pushed and prodded Dean as gently as he could, until Dean was more awake. The bad part of being awake, was that everything came roaring back to Dean. Everything that John had said and did and the pain that went with it. Dean tried to not whimper in pain as Sam cleaned him up with the first aid kit John had dropped. Dean succeeded for the most part, but every once in a while, one would slip out. Sam apologized after every one and asked what had happened and where John was now.  
"No idea where he is." Dean admitted half delirious with pain. He haltingly told Sam what he had learned about their mother and Sam filled in the blanks when Dean couldn't say any more.

"You were like this when I got home and Dad was already gone." Sam said as he began to repack the kit. He helped Dean put on a loose t-shirt and lay on his stomach in bed.  
"Thanks Sammy." Dean mumbled.  
"You're welcome." Sam started to say when he heard the rumble of a truck engine outside. Sam quickly grabbed the kit and got out of Dean's room. He dumped the kit back in the bathroom and hightailed it back to his room, shutting the door behind him.

John was home.


	2. Part Two

The heavy tread of his feet came up the stairs and Sam opened his door a crack to see what was going on. He could see John standing at Dean's door, a screwdriver in one hand and a paper bag in the other. John opened the bag, taking out a small package, and began to screw a chain lock to the outside of Dean's door. After he was done, John picked up the bag, which rattled, and left the hall. After a few minutes Sam heard movement outside and a banging sound around Dean's room.

He was nailing the window shut. Dean was now trapped in his room.

San heard John put things away and leave again. After the sound of the truck engine faded away, Sam slipped over to Dean's door and unlocked it, coming inside.  
"Dad nailed your window shut didn't he?"  
"Yep." Dean nodded. "Made sure to get the nails in real good."  
The two remained in silence, Sam gently tucking Dean in when he fell asleep. Sam quietly left Dean's room, locking him back in, and heading back to his own room, his mind already making a list of things to look into. He had a lot of research ahead of him, it was going to be a long night.

A few hours into his research, Sam heard John come home and unlock Dean's door. The shuffling stumble gave him away, John had been away drinking. A icy block of dread formed in the middle of Sam's stomach as he heard the lock swing against the door. Sam bolted out of his room when he heard Dean yelp in shock and pain.  
"Dad, stop!" Sam yelled at John, running into Dean's room and grabbing for John's arm. John managed to get in a few more punches before Sam was able to grab hold.  
"Stop it, now!" Sam shouted.   
John shoved Sam away, knocking Sam to the floor. "Get out Sam. This doesn't concern you."  
"The hell it doesn't, he's my brother!" Sam shot back while getting up.  
"He's an animal." John snapped, slapping Sam before he left Dean's room and went to his own, most likely to drink himself to sleep.  
Dean shrugged off Sam's questions of if he was okay, muttering that he was fine and curled up with his back against the wall.

The next morning, after John had left the house and thankfully left Dean alone, Sam brought him a plate of food, some medicine and the first aid kit. Sam wouldn't listen to Dean's claims of being fine and insisted that he eat and let Sam look at his injuries after he was done. It was while Sam was cleaning the cuts and abrasions that Dean said that he was going to leave. Sam applied a layer of antibacterial to a bandage and applied it to Dean's back.   
"Really? How are you going to do that? You don't have any real money or a car to get out of town."  
Dean chuckled to himself, he had been saving the money that Bobby paid him. "There's money in the safe Sammy, I'll take that." If Dean combined both and was careful, he'd have more than enough to get himself away.

After doing some more research that night, Sam was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes from dinner, when he heard a muffled thump from the direction of the garage. Sam put the glass in his hand down and crept out of the kitchen and down the hall towards the garage. The door was open slightly, the light in the hall and garage turned off. Sam stopped a foot away from the door and listened. The door in the garage opened and closed and someone quietly coughed.  
"Quiet." John hissed. "Someone might hear."  
"I doubt it, John." a voice replied. Sam couldn't place it, just that it was male.  
"It's late enough, we should be all right." A female voice said.  
There was a shuffling sound in the garage as someone moved around and the door opened again.  
"Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything?" Another woman.  
"No, we were just about to start." John said.

Sam stayed still and listened, he knew he had heard the voices before. One was his father, but the other three eluded him for the time being.  
"Thank you John for letting us know about this problem, the sooner we take care of it the better." One of the women said.  
"It was my duty to tell the council. I'm sorry I couldn't say so sooner." John replied.  
The town council was meeting in his family's garage? It had to be about Dean.

"It's not your fault, you didn't know." one of the men replied. "Though you did the right thing." Sam was sure that voice belonged to Gordon Walker.  
"Always knew Mary was a dragon bitch, lucky thing she's dead." A third male said. Sam realized that the voice belonged to Zachariah Flatus. Sam hadn't heard him enter the garage, he must have already been there when Sam picked up on them.  
That meant that the two woman must be Lilith Mered and her sister, Ruby.  
"Shut up Zach, that's my wife you're talking about." John growled.  
"Gentlemen, can we please get back to the matter at hand? There is a Dragonkin in our midst, we need to kill it before a dragon starts sniffing around." Lilith asked. Scales growing on a human were a sign of dragon blood in the family and that ment a dragon would come looking for the person soon.

The members of the council were very anti dragon, as far as they were concerned, the only good dragon was a dead one and the Dragonkin were abominations to the human race. John took a lot of pride in the fact that his family was a founding family of the council and helped eradicate the last of the dragons from their town and the surrounding area. Lawrence, Kansas hadn't seen a dragon or Dragonkin in a hundred years, and John planned to keep it that way.

Dean's home town tended to favor dragons being put to death, and they loved to dish it out. If a dragon was discovered, it was promptly disposed of by stabbing, beheading and burning the body. The ashes were thrown into the nearby rivers and any possessions were split amongst the council. The council discussed methods of death for Dean like one would decide what they wanted for dinner, it made Sam's entire body shiver in fear and disgust. It was decided that Dean would die in the next three to four days and the meeting was ended, the members slipping out the way they came. Sam slipped away himself, doing his best not to run away like he desperately wanted to.

John drank himself to sleep that night and Sam snuck into Dean's room as soon as John was unconscious on the living room sofa.  
"Dean! Wake up! We need to talk, it's important." Sam shook Dean awake as gently as he could.  
"What? What wrong Sam?" Dean asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.  
"The council was just here. Dad told them about you, I overheard them in the garage just now." Sam babbled.  
"Hang on Sam, slow down." Dean said as he sat up.  
"Dean!" Sam exclaimed.  
"Sam." Dean replied.  
"The council was just here!" Sam whined. "They're going to kill you!"  
"How long do we have?" Dean asked.  
"Three or four days."  
"Barely enough time." Dean said to himself. "Where's Dad?"  
"Asleep in the living room, why?"  
"I'm moving things ahead of schedule. Go to the safe in his room, it's behind the wedding picture of him and Mom on the wall. The code is the day she died. Take out the steel box that's in there, leave the rest." Dean said. "Dad won't notice until it's too late."  
Sam nodded and soon returned with the box. Dean opened it and removed a bundle of cash and a smaller wooden box.  
"Go put this back." he handed Sam the steel box. "Come back here when you're done." 

Dean opened the wooden box and removed the cloth bag inside it, the money fit nicely inside and Dean opened the bag and poured out the contents. The jewelry inside it clinked against one another as a tangle of necklaces, rings and a few bracelets fell out and onto Dean's bed. He began to separate the bits of gold and silver into their respective metals and then their components, based on what was real gemstones and what he was sure were high quality fakes.

When Sam came back, Dean handed him a good portion of the jewelry. "You know Bobby Singer right?"  
"Yeah, lives at the edge of town, you've been working for him." Sam replied.  
"Take this and go to him. Tell him I need a car, anything that can get me out of town."  
Sam nodded and left the house, riding his bike to Bobby's as fast as he could.

Despite the late hour, Bobby was still up, the light on in his living room. Sam went up the front steps and knocked on the door. Bobby answered, what Sam didn't see was the handgun behind Bobby's back as he did so.  
"What do you want?" Bobby asked, the door open enough for Bobby to see but still block it with his body.  
"I'm Sam Winchester, my brother Dean works for you. We need your help, please." Sam told Bobby.  
Bobby stared at Sam for a moment.  
"Please sir, Dean's in danger and he sent me to you to ask for a car. I can pay you for the trouble." He took the jewelry out of his backpack. He had put it in a plastic zipper bag before he left home and the contents shone in the light.  
Bobby looked at the jewelry. "Put that away and come in Sam."

"What did you need?" Bobby asked as he shut the door and guided Sam further in, heading back to the living room and the book he had been reading.  
"A car. The sooner the better, something that can get Dean out of here." Sam said, sitting down when Bobby gestured for him to take a seat.  
"A car? Why?" Bobby asked, though he was damn sure he knew what the answer was.  
Sam sighed and looked down at his hands. "Dean told me what you told him. About our Mom. Dad saw the scales and went ballistic. He beat Dean up pretty bad. He's healing, but the council is going to kill him."   
"When do you need the car by?" Bobby asked.  
"In the next three to four days."  
"I can get you something by midnight tomorrow. Be ready at your house and waiting outside." Bobby said, standing up. "It's a tight window, but I can make something work."

Sam stood as well, picking up his bag. "Thank you." He took out the bag of jewelry again. "Are you sure I can't pay you for the trouble?"  
Bobby started to tell Sam to keep it, when one of the rings caught his eye.  
"Let me see that one." He said, pointing out the silver band. Sam took it out and gave it to him. Bobby held it up to the light for a closer look, it was what he thought it was.  
"I'll keep this one, give the rest back to Dean."  
"Sure. What is it?" Sam asked, putting the jewelry back in his backpack and slipping that onto his back.  
"My wife's ring. Karen gave it to Mary to use as her wedding ring."  
Sam thanked Bobby once more and quickly made the trip home.

Sam leaned the bike against the garage and slipped back into the house. He was putting his bag down when John came down the stairs.  
"Where have you been?" John asked.  
"Just got home from the library." Sam lied, hoping that John wouldn't notice that the library had closed a few hours ago. Sam tried to not notice the bloodstains on John's hands and failed.  
"I have some bad news to tell you." John said. "About Dean."  
"What about him?" Sam asked, hoping that the news wasn't that he was dead.  
"He's a Dragonkin." John went on and explained everything and just how bad it was. Sam didn't really hear all of it, everything just faded away to a white noise while relief that his father hadn't killed Dean yet, _or_ figured out that Sam had known already, swept through him. Sam was with it enough to see that his father was trying to brainwash him against Dean.

Sam nodded and when John was satisfied with what Sam said, he let Sam go upstairs. Sam happily did so, taking his bag with him, and went directly to Dean's room. Dean was on the floor trying to get up when Sam stepped in. Shutting the door behind him, Sam rushed to help Dean to his feet.  
"Let me see your back."  
"I'm fine Sammy. He mainly threw punches." Dean said.  
"Let me see anyway." Sam argued, taking note of Dean's busted lip and the bruises forming on his chin.

Dean's back was fine, the marks from the belt were healing and looking less angry and red, but Sam changed the bandages anyway.  
"I talked to Bobby, he'll have a car ready by midnight tomorrow."  
"Good, gonna need it." Dean hissed at the peroxide applied to a cut.  
" _We're_ gonna need it." Sam corrected.  
"What 'we' there is no 'we'." Dean said, pulling on another loose shirt.  
"I'm going with you."  
"Sam, you're seventeen! No you're not." Dean protested.  
"The hell I'm not Dean. Dad tried to brainwash me into believing you were evil and an animal. I'm not staying around for any more of that crap." Sam fumed.  
Dean sighed, he didn't really want to argue with Sam. "Fine, whatever. Be ready to go tomorrow night."  
Sam nodded and left after making sure Dean was comfortable. Before he went to bed, Sam packed a bag for himself and made sure to pack the map he had marked earlier and to clear his computer's history.

The next day, John spent most of the day out of the house, a fact that worried Sam, he didn't like not knowing what his dad was planning. The day passed quietly, both boys making sure they were ready. A little before midnight, Dean left his room and opened the safe in John's room, taking out the last box and removing the revolver that was in it, along with the bullets. Dean checked the gun, loaded it, and slipped it into his waistband at the small of his back before grabbing his bag and going down the stairs for the last time.

Sam and Dean met at the door.  
"Ready?" Dean asked, shouldering his bag.  
Sam nodded.  
"You sure you want to come? You don't have to, y'know." Dean said as he opened the door.  
"I'm going Dean." Sam replied stubbornly.  
"Well okay then." Dean answered, opening the door and walking out, leaving their childhood home behind.  
A set of headlights flashed at them twice from down and across the street.  
"That's Bobby, let's go."  
Both boys began to cross the street toward the car when the rumble of John's truck reached their ears.  
"Oh fuck." Dean hissed as the truck rounded the corner and the lights hit them dead on in the middle of the street.  
"What do we do Dean?" Sam asked, trying to hide the panic that was doing it's best to claw its way to the front of his brain.  
"Run for the car." Dean ordered as the truck stopped and John got out, hunting rifle in hand, pointing it at both of them.  
"Sam, step away from that lizard. He's dangerous and needs to be put down." John called using his door as cover.

"No. He's my brother." Sam said staying by Dean.  
Dean pulled the revolver out, pointing it back at John. "He's not going fucking anywhere, unlike you, he watched out and cared about me. We're both leaving and you can kindly go fuck yourself John Winchester, I'm not lying down to die like an animal."  
"Yes, you are. Sam get over here now." John growled.  
"He's my brother and your son. We should be helping him, not trying to kill him." Sam pleaded with John.

John snorted at this and laughed darkly. "No, he's not. You're nothing but a monster and should be treated like one. You were never human to begin with. Neither was your father and I killed him with that gun. Now for the last time Sam, get over here."  
Dean grabbed Sam pulling him in front, using Sam as a shield. "If you're going to kill me, you'll have to do it through Sam. Can you do that John, shoot your own son to get to me?" Dean asked, starting to walk back to Bobby and pulling Sam with him.

John watched as the boys moved down the road, he really didn't want to shoot, he wasn't sure he wouldn't hit Sam. But he had done that once and it cost him everything, so John shoved away any fear, pumped the gun and fired. He didn't hit the boys, but the bullet hit the ground close to them. Dean held on to Sam tightly and fired back, the gun jumping in his hand. The bullets ripped up the street and mostly hit John's truck, but he did get one lucky shot in and managed to clip John in the leg. John went down with a scream as the boys broke into a run to Bobby and the car he had brought, an old, beat up orange VW Beetle. They scrambled into the front seat, Sam sitting in Dean's lap, the bags landing haphazardly in the back. Bobby gunned the engine and they tore out of the neighborhood like their tails were on fire. John looked up from the ground as they ripped by, took aim with his gun and fired, The back window cracked and several bullets lodged themselves in the metal body, a few hitting the engine.

By the time they got to the edge of town, the car was a mess. The engine in the back was smoking and the car was leaking fluids. Bobby pulled to a stop in his front yard, swearing a blue streak.  
"I can't believe this! The two of you are gonna be the death of me! Or worse." Bobby grumbled, getting out of the car and slamming the door. He continued on his tirade, muttering to himself as the boys got out of the car and he marched across the yard and up the steps into his house. Dean and Sam stayed with the car, unsure what to do. Bobby came back out and started to walk across the yard again.  
"You two just gonna stand there all night?" Bobby asked. Sam and Dean scrambled after him as he entered a garage tucked around the side of his house.

"I got one more car that's ready right now." Bobby told them, turning on the lights. He went over to the covered car and pulled off the tarp. Under the blue weather resistant fabric was a sparkling black Impala.   
"Wow." Dean whispered, promptly falling in lust with the car.  
"Kinda flashy isn't it?" Sam asked. "I bet the gas mileage isn't so great either and you could hear us a mile away..."  
Dean elbowed Sam in the ribs. "Shut up Sammy!" he hissed.  
Bobby chucked as he tossed Dean the keys. Dean caught them and got in, turning the engine over and smiling at her deep purr.

Never mind lust, he was now in love with this car.

Dean backed out into the yard, pulling up to the other car. He and Sam tossed their bags into the Impala and Dean shook Bobby's hand.  
"Thank you, it means a lot." he told the older man while Sam got into the car.  
"You're welcome. Go west, I'll dump the car somewhere east of town." Bobby replied.  
"Thanks again Bobby." Dean grinned, slamming the door and driving off into the night.

Once they were on the highway, Sam pulled out the map he had and switched on his flashlight.  
Dean glanced over wondering what he was doing. "What'cha got there?"  
"It's a map." Sam said, his tone screaming that he was stating the obvious.  
"I can _see_ that doofus. What of?" Dean shot back, keeping an eye on the road.  
"Various towns that are pro and anti dragon. Nearest pro one is-"  
"No Sam." Dean snipped that train of thought off at the stem.  
"Okay. Well there's also neutral towns, we could-" San began to say, searching his map.  
"No." Dean disagreed.  
"But don't you want to learn about your-"  
" _No_." Dean hissed icily "Just pick somewhere very far away." he growled.  
Sam studied the map for a bit before naming a town a few states over.  
"Perfect." Dean said and pointed the car in the right direction.

After several days of driving, they pulled into town and checked into the Tiki Bass Motel, a motel whose decor was a strange mixture of fishing and a tiki lounge. They laid low for a couple of days, checking the place out, and Dean sold the rest of Mary's jewelry at both of the town's pawn shops. It was while they were laying low in the motel room, that Sam started to really get on Dean's nerves. All Sam was trying to do, was help, and deep down Dean knew this. But it didn't stop Sam from being just a little annoying when he seriously got into geek mode, and this whole Dragonkin thing put Sam in _serious_ geek mode. It was enough to give Dean a headache, he was certain that his head would explode if he heard one more thing about it.

This morning was no exception and it was where Dean drew the line. "Sam, just stop. I don't want to hear anymore." he growled.  
"But-" Sam protested.  
"No! You may find all this fascinating, but I don't. Quit treating me like I'm some sort of science experiment."  
"I'm not-"  
"Yeah Sam, you are!" Dean snapped back, grabbing his coat and heading towards the door. "I'm going out. I'll be back in a while." Dean stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He drove around town a bit to cool off and in doing so, began to realize that he couldn't take care of Sam, not with how things were now. Dean sighed to himself and turned the car back towards the bus station that he had passed further back.

Dean came back to their room later, walked over to his bed and began to pack his clothes.  
"What are you doing? Is something wrong?" Sam asked, looking up from his bed where he had been reading.  
"Nothing's wrong. I'm just packing." Dean replied, not looking at Sam.  
"What? Why?" Sam questioned, getting up off the bed.  
"Because I can't do this. I can't take care of you like this. You really need to go back to John. You're his son, you'll still have a chance with him." Dean said.  
"I'm not going back. I meant what I said, I'm staying with you." Sam stepped closer to Dean's bed.  
Dean snorted in bitter laughter. "Sam, you're seventeen and still in high school, the answer is no. You're going home, you're finishing your education."  
Sam let out a snort of derision. "My grades are better than yours were at my age." He grabbed the shirt from Dean's hands. "Dean, I'm not leaving."  
"Yes, you are." Dean argued, grabbing his shirt back and shoving it into the bag. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bus ticket and tossed it on the bed. "And that's final." Dean shouldered his bag and turned towards the door. "The bus leaves tomorrow morning at 10."  
"Dean, wait." Sam said as Dean opened the door. "Don't leave. Please. What'll I do without you?"  
"You'll figure it out and be better off without me." Dean replied and walked out.

 

**Three months later**

 

Dean had cut off all contact with John and Sam. The only person he did talk to was Bobby and this was after he made Bobby swear that he would never tell either John or Sam, mostly Sam, that Dean talked to him. Bobby did and Dean did his best to call every couple of weeks and let Bobby know that he was alive. Bobby had offered to help him find a dragon friendly town, one that could help Dean with his problems. Yes, problems. Plural. Besides the shedding, the heat was a problem as well, and one that had slapped Dean good and hard upside the head when it first showed itself.

Dean rolled over in bed and groaned, eyes still crusted shut from sleep. He fumbled for his phone and looked at the time through one semi opened eye. Too fucking early is what his brain supplied, 11am is what his phone told him. Dean let the phone drop back to the nightstand and burrowed back under the sheets, only to throw them back off a few minutes later, when he was too hot. Dean rubbed at his eyes and looked blearily at the ceiling. He felt like hell and looked like death warmed over. Dean slowly sat up, his stomach still in knots from the night before. He could now rule out something he ate as the cause for his pain, because he could now add a low grade fever and the fact that it felt like someone had kneed him in the balls, twice, to the list.

Dean winced at the shaft of light coming in through the closed curtains. They didn't fit properly over the window and light still came in around the edges and the bottom. His sheets smelled kinda funky, like ass and cheeseburgers, so Dean decided that a shower was in order. Getting up hurt, when Dean stretched, all of his joints screamed at him and his skin joined in as well, it felt like it had shrunk.  
"Damn molting." Dean muttered to himself as he shuffled to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He had started shedding shortly after leaving Sam. It had started slowly at first, random itchy spots on his back and sides and had morphed into a full blown ache and tightness of a bad sunburn. For the first month, Dean's skin had shed itself on a weekly basis and the itch had driven him nearly mad with frustration. The scales on his back were the first to slough off, the pattern of vines becoming more pronounced, revealing an ivy leaf bit by bit. The leaves were small and delicate and the edges of them were the worst when it came to shedding, they took forever to come in. 

Soon Dean was shaking out his clothes before he went to bed and the sheets when he woke up. By the end of the first month, the majority of Dean's pattern had come in, one of ivy vines that twisted and curled along his lower back and reached around his ribs and up to his shoulders and upper back. During his second month of freedom, they began to shed themselves every two weeks and the finer details of his pattern were showing, mainly the edges and points of the ivy leaves. By the end of the second month, Dean's pattern had grown completely in and was curling just a little up his neck, but he could still hide it with his shirts.

Dean stripped in the bathroom and leaned over to turn on the shower. He still felt warm so he turned on both the hot and cold water to get the shower nice and warm. After waiting a few minutes, Dean stepped into the back of the tub and raised a hand to the water to test its temperature, yanking his hand back when he found it too cold. Dean ducked under the stream of water and re adjusted things. He kept fiddling with the temperature, the water still too cold for his liking, finally sitting in the tub letting the water fall on him until her found a temperature that he liked. Dean stood up with a small groan and began to clean himself up, his skin around his scales coming off as he scrubbed himself off and enjoyed the heat of the water. Soon through the water began to run cold. Dean opened his eyes and looked down at the tub's knobs, his mouth falling open when he realized that he had been standing under scalding hot water for almost his entire shower. The cold water was off and he had used up all of the motel's hot water in this one shower. The water was getting cooler and Dean quickly turned it off, opening the shower curtain into a very steamy bathroom. Stepping out, he wrapped a towel around himself and opened the bathroom door.  
"Son of a bitch!" Dean gasped, as the cold air rushed in. He slammed the door shut, trapping the warm air with him. It was _freezing_ in the rest of the motel room. Dean went over to the bathroom mirror, wiped a hand across it to get rid of the worst of the condensation and looked at his reflection.

Dean's skin was bright red and he could see where his scales had shed another layer of skin when he turned his back. The scales stood out more than normal due to the water, and it looked like he had the start of scales around his eyes. The scales on his back were a bright, almost liquid gold. Dean quickly dried off and laid a hand on the doorknob, taking a quick breath before opening said door and hurrying out into the bedroom.

_Son of a fucking bitch_! It was _still_ cold out here. 

Dean grabbed the nearest article of clothing, a clean pair of boxers, and went to turn up the heat. He put them on and looked at the thermostat. It was eighty degrees in the room. Dean got dressed and looked again. Yep, eighty degrees. Dean shrugged on his jacket and decided that a stop at the grocery store was in order.

Dean walked into the store with no mishaps along the way, unless you counted women looking at him, but he was used to that. What he wasn't used to, was the way that they appeared to be tracking his every move, or that's what it looked like. Strange but kinda easy to ignore. Having a few _men_ do the same was odd as well, but Dean just shrugged it off and continued on his way. Dean grabbed a hand basket and soon had if filled with some soup, crackers, cough syrup and drops, some juice and several pocket sized packets of kleenex. Dean walked up to the cashier and paid, smiling when she made small talk and for some reason watching her while they talked. The girl, her name tag read "Sara", had a nice smile and lots of curly dark brown hair. She blushed prettily when he flirted with her and Dean really liked that.  
He leaned in close and asked "When do you get off work?"   
"I can have a break in five minutes." she replied, eyes dilated slightly, the iris turning a darker brown.  
Dean grinned. "Good."

Sara was true to her word, five minutes later found her and Dean in a back room, Sara pinned up against the wall, her legs around Dean's waist as he greedily pulled her shirt open and pushed her skirt up.  
"I've got fifteen minutes." she told Dean.  
"More then enough to have fun and get you back in time." Dean replied, sliding a hand up her thigh and hooking her underwear with his fingers. 

The noise of the backroom faded as Dean focused on the girl in front of him. While he could hear people moving around, loading things off a truck and the possibility of being seen or caught was a threat, he just really didn't care at that moment. All that really mattered to Dean right this very moment, was satisfying the ache inside him and this girl was the way to do it. There was some relief as he slid inside her, but it wasn't enough and he began to thrust inside her, his awareness narrowing just a little more as she clenched around him.

Dean had had sex before, he was no virgin, but it had never felt like this, desperate, hot and if he didn't come now, he was going to explode. His grip on the girl, her name already slipping away from him, tightened and he thrust harder into her, swallowing her gasps and damn near biting her when she reached under his shirt and ran her nails down his scales. Instead he growled in the back of his throat and nipped at her neck. His scales were always a little sensitive after a molt but he had no idea it'd be like this. Dean shuddered, his skin prickling as she traced one vine of leaves down his shoulder. In truth, he didn't last very long, the last time that happened was when he was seventeen and first discovering sex. This time however, he came shortly after her, her moan muffled by his neck. Dean swears he sees stars, his body going limp after, the only things keeping him up are the wall and the girl whose name he honestly can't remember now.

As the sounds of the room around him come back into focus, Dean comes back to himself and steps away, quickly straightening his clothes. What did he just do? Granted his climax had felt like he had been punched in the stomach, but he felt a ton better now, than he did when he came in. Dean quickly stammered out an apology to Sara, grabbed his bag from the floor and ran out one of the back room's side doors. 

Dean slammed the motel room door behind him, locking it. What the _hell_ had that been about? Dean dropped his bag on the dresser, shrugged off his jacket and flopped down on the bed, groaning to himself, hands pressing into his eyes. Dean stared up at the ceiling and tried to forget what happened.

It didn't work. It was a few hours later and all he could think of was that girl and how good she felt around him. He had started to get hot again and so laid there in the bed in his boxers, the sheets half off the bed and puddled on the ground. It was crazy, one minute he was burning up, the next he was cold. He was hot now, had been for a while, and he couldn't stop thinking about that girl. Jerking off eased the pain for all of two seconds before it came roaring back, the need for someone even stronger. There was a knock at the door.  
"Housekeeping." he heard a male voice call through the door.   
Dean's eyes opened at the knock. _"I should tell him to go away. He really shouldn't be near me right now."_ he thought. Dean sighed to himself and tried to tell the guy to leave, but couldn't focus enough to form the words.  
The maid knocked again and after another pause, unlocked the door and came in.

Dean watched as he stepped in. The young man had dark brown hair and eyes, he looked to be about Dean's height.   
"Are you okay? he asked when he saw Dean laying on the bed.   
Dean didn't answer at all, he just watched him and breathed in the scent of human as the guy got closer to the bed.   
_Oh yes, please, come closer."_ Dean thought watching the other man. _"Just a little more."_  
"Sir? Are you alright, is there anything you need or that I can get for you?" The maid stood at the side of the bed looking at Dean, the pheromones beginning to affect the poor guy the closer he got to Dean. "You really don't look well."  
"I really don't feel well." Dean admitted. Dean sat up, grabbed the guy and dragged him onto the bed with a growl. Dean didn't even bother with asking the guy for his name, all that mattered was making this ache go away. 

Dean moved so that he was straddling the guy's legs and frantically pulling off his shirt, licking whatever bit of skin he could reach on him. The guy didn't say much, just gasped in pleasure and helped Dean divest himself of his clothing as quickly as possible. Dean could appreciate that, the guy wasn't bad to look at either, olive skin with a dusting of freckles and a ticklish abdomen. Dean grinned when he found out, his fingertips brushed the housekeeper's sides and the man twitched, a giggle escaping his lips. Dean's grin widened and he soon lost himself completely in this stranger.

 

Dean opened his eyes and the ceiling came into focus first. He was still in bed only naked this time. He felt fine, so Dean closed his eyes and decided to go back to sleep. He was almost asleep, when he realized that someone was in bed with him. Dean looked over to see the guy from before still there, thankfully still asleep for the moment. Dean jerked away and scrambled away from the bed, his hands searching for his nearest bit of clothing. Dean yanked on his jeans and left the motel room in a panic.

 

Dean ran down an alley, his bare feet splashing through the puddles of water and picking up dirt and grit as he ran. About half way down the alley there was a dumpster and Dean ducked down beside it. Behind him was a small alcove, it looked like there had been a door there at one point. Whatever the reason Dean was grateful for the hiding spot and pressed his back against the wall as his breathing and heartbeat returned to normal, his mind running in circles not knowing what to do.

A door opened and closed somewhere ahead of the dumpster and Dean's heart nearly jumped out of his chest. It had been quiet the couple of hours that he had been here but the sound of someone coming near, made Dean press further into the brick walls and wish he was smaller. He settled for crouching down and trying to be quiet. There were footsteps approaching the dumpster and the rustle of plastic, great, someone was taking the trash out. Dean tried to pretend he wasn't there, while he was at it, he wished himself to be human. He wished for whoever it was to leave quickly, his body was burning up again and he didn't want to hurt anyone else. It didn't work of course. The sound of the lid being opened and the bags thrown away was followed by the sound of sniffing.

Not like someone was sick, but like they were scenting the air, looking for someone. The dumpster lid shut with a bang and whoever it was sniffed again, this time coming around the side of the large trash bin. It was a blonde girl, wearing jeans, a black apron around her waist, and a white shirt. She looked to be around his age and Dean's body heat rose at the sight of her.  
 _"Oh god, go away."_ he thought when her head whipped to the side and locked eyes with him.  
"Stay away!" he rasped. He really should have grabbed the juice on his way out, his throat was dry, but it was all he could do to remember jeans.  
"Are you alright?" she asked, stepping closer, sniffing the air delicately.  
Dean stood up, shoving his body further into the alcove, but there's nowhere to go. "I said leave! It's not safe to be around me."  
"Sweetie, I know that. I can smell you from here." she replied softly, a few more steps closer.  
"What?" Dean asked. She couldn't be serious, what the hell was she talking about? His pulse thrummed behind his eyes, the need for release screaming louder, the closer she got to him.  
"My name's Ruby, let me help you." she told him stepping into the alcove.  
"No, you need-" Dean protested weakly.  
"I can explain afterwards, just let me help you now." Ruby replied kissing Dean lightly on the mouth, before she fished a pony tail holder from her apron, pulled her hair back into a ponytail and sank to her knees. Dean looked down at the girl in front of him, a flash of red poking out from under her shirt sleeve, they looked like scales. Ruby quickly unzipped Dean's jeans and stroked him with her hand.  
Dean jumped at the contact but he was too far gone to say no. He shuddered and moaned at the first lick.  
"Poor baby, not going to last long are you? Don't worry, I'll make it enjoyable."

 

Ruby cleaned Dean up as well as she could with a paper napkin from her apron and led him to the building she had come out of. Ruby unlocked the door and led him inside to a hallway. Dean could hear the clatter of dishes and people talking ahead of them. The hallway had two other doors as well, one on the right marked "office" and one across from it marked "Restroom- Employees Only". Ruby ignored all that and pulled him up a flight of stairs.  
"Again, I'm Ruby, what's your name?"  
"Dean." Dean replied as she rounded a right corner and led him up a shorter set of stairs to another door which she also unlocked.  
"Come on in." she said, opening the door. "You'll be safe here." Ruby walked into the room, Dean close behind her.

The room was set up to be an apartment. It was rather large and seemed to take up the entire second floor. From where they stood, Dean could see the kitchen, areas sectioned off to be the bedroom and living room, going by their furniture and what looked to be a bathroom, seeing as it was the only section with walls and a door. The room was painted a pale green with a creamy white trim around the windows and doors.  
Ruby shut the door. "You can stay up here while I'm at work downstairs." she said, watching as Dean looked around her apartment. She could tell he needed help, his movements all but screamed it. "Glasses are in the cabinet next to the fridge if you're thirsty. I can bring up something to eat if you're hungry."  
"Thanks. Where am I?" Dean asked, turning back to Ruby. "I mean where in town?"  
"Ruby's. It's a dinner off of Wolfhaven Avenue. I own it."  
"Oh."  
"Anything you want to eat?" Ruby asked.  
Dean nodded and asked for a burger.  
Ruby smiled, writing a quick note on her order pad and left to go get it.

The next few hours were a comfortable blur for Dean. He remembers eating, getting cleaned up and possibly a nap, but mainly what remains crystal clear is Ruby coming back upstairs and the need to be with her. While it wasn't as strong as it had been in the alley, Dean pounced on her the moment the door was closed and whisked her off to her rather comfortable king sized bed.

 

"Feeling better?" Ruby asked later on towards evening. Both she and Dean were in bed, the remains of dinner and sex strewn around them.  
"Yeah, a little bit." Dean said. "I still don't get what's going on, I don't normally fuck random people like this. Normally I chat them up a bit first, have a drink or two."  
Ruby chuckled, eating the last of an orange wedge. "The virgins are always so cute. But it's sad watching them flounder without help."  
"I'm _not_ a virgin!" Dean spat out indignantly.  
"Virginity isn't always in reference to sex Dean. This is your first heat, isn't it?" She rattled off the symptoms that Dean had been feeling and smirked when he nodded. "I knew it."  
"And you make a point to help out the virgins?" Dean shot back.  
"Not all of them. Where are you from Dean and what brings you to our little town?"

Dean gave her the bare bones version of leaving and he left Sam out completely.  
"So, not a runaway then. How old are you?" Ruby began to gather the remaining trash to throw away.  
"Twenty one." Dean got up to help her, neither of them bothering with clothing for the moment, they'd just get in the way.  
Ruby nodded. "You got a last name Dean?" Dean winced at that, not wanting to answer the question. "Never mind, plenty of us don't want to use our last names. We either come up with a new one entirely or use our dragon's."  
Dean's head jerked up so fast, Ruby was surprised he didn't get whiplash. "Seriously?"  
"Yes. Not every place on Earth wants to see dragons dead Dean. But there are some that prefer to not use their dragon's name either. They tend to just use their first name. You've never been to a dragon friendly town before have you?" she asked.  
"I've been avoiding them." Dean answered, setting some plates in the sink and pointedly not looking in Ruby's direction.  
Ruby decided to leave that conversation for another day, instead asking where Dean had been staying and if he needed anything.  
"Not until you've explained this heat thing to me." Dean replied, getting a drink and sitting back on the bed.  
"Fair enough." Ruby got a glass of water for herself and sat next to Dean.

"Some of it, I think you've already figured out." Ruby sipped from her glass and set it on the night stand.  
"Yeah, the constant need for sex. Kinda hard not to notice that one." Dean snorted, stretching and curling an arm around Ruby.  
Ruby laid her head on his shoulder. "And the molting."  
"When does that stop? Seriously?" Dean asked.  
"It doesn't."  
"What? Why?" Dean demanded.  
"Calm down. It'll slow down as you get older. Finding your dragon will help, until you do, you'll shed like clockwork once a month, every month. After you find your dragon, it'll be around every three months."  
"I hate shedding." Dean groaned.  
"I've got some moisturizer that can help with that. Roll over on your stomach, I'll rub your back while I talk." Ruby got up and headed for the bathroom. Dean could hear her moving things about while he rolled over.

Ruby settled back onto the bed, straddling Dean's back and opening the jar before scooping some lotion onto his back and putting the container on the nightstand. As she slowly worked the cream into his scales and skin she began to talk.  
"Dragons and other Dragonkin will find you irresistible, unless they're mated. If they are, they'll still be able to scent you, but not want to drag you off to a dark corner."  
"Or drop to their knees in an alley." Dean replied.  
"Yeah."  
"So you're reaction to me means that you haven't found your dragon yet?" Dean asked.  
Ruby shook her head. "No, not yet. But I will, I've made contact with some groups, I've got friends helping me to look." She scooped out another dollop of moisturizer. "The heat will happen every three months. Humans aren't very affected by our heat, unless they already find us sexually attractive. Be careful with human lovers, you could hurt them without meaning to."  
"How?" Dean asked as she pushed the heels of her palms into his shoulders.  
"By biting too deeply, or squeezing too hard. We don't have the strength of a dragon, but in the heat of passion, we can still hurt someone." She moved on to Dean's arms. "Remind me to get you some of this when you leave, your skin will thank you."

She went on to explain what was in the cream, mainly oat milk, lavender, honey and a couple different oils. Dean didn't really care, but it smelled nice and his skin was just drinking it up. He listened in earnest as Ruby talked about the herbs in heat suppressants and wrote down where he could get them in town.  
"We also have safe houses scattered throughout the country. They come in handy for hiding and during heats." Ruby said, sitting back next to Dean when she was done with his back. "Roll over, I'll massage your face."

She dabbed lotion at Dean's temples and began to rub it in. "We also use them as hospitals if we can't get to a real one, or the real one won't treat dragons or Dragonkin. The symbol you want to look for is of two dragons. They'll be facing each other holding claws, with their wings flared behind them, their tails twisted together. Color of the dragons doesn't matter, it's usually carved into wood or stone."  
"Sounds like the caduceus medical symbol." Dean said.  
"The humans stole it from us and the same reason to use it." Ruby replied. "Another symbol to look for is a dragon claw, they're normally done in metallic colors."

Ruby capped the lotion and kept talking. A pair of crossed swords over a set of claw marks was a warning against dragon hunters. As a side note, when they had decided to stop the lecture for lunch and happier topics, Dean found out that one of his favorite music groups, Blue Oyster Cult was actually a group of Dragonkin.  
"Are you shitting me?" Dean asked, disbelievingly.  
"Nope. 'Don't Fear the Reaper' is about Hunters and not being afraid of them." Ruby replied.  
"Damn, I really like that song too." Dean muttered to himself.  
During lunch, Dean asked about Ruby's scales and why they were different from his.  
"Because my dragon is different from yours. The shape will vary from Dragonkin to Dragonkin, but the two things that all Dragonkin have in common, is that their scales will be the color of their dragon's belly scales.and will match a mark somewhere on their dragon's body."

According to her, those that were marked, made good mates for dragons and the sooner the pair found each other, the better it was for both. The shedding and heats were signs that Dean's mate needed him and would stop at nothing to find him. 

So far there was no luck on that front. Ruby offered to help and Dean refused, he considered it a good thing, the stories that the council had told through the years running rampant through his head. Being the mate of a dragon was the worst thing to happen to a human, if you didn't work out as breeding material for them, they ate you. They had a tendency to horde shiny things and keep their humans close, Dean had never heard of a human being let go or allowed to see their family again. Dean shuddered internally at the thought of being trapped like that, better to run and be free. Ruby nodded and said that her offer still stood if Dean ever changed his mind. Dean didn't plan on it. 

At the end of his heat, Dean decided that it was time to move on and he couldn't get away fast enough. He picked up what he needed and said goodbye to Ruby, happy to put her and the town behind him. He blamed anything he felt towards her on the heat, any gratitude was just the remains of the heat leaving him. By the time he reached the next town, he almost believed it. After checking into a motel and taking a steaming shower, he was willing to.

 

**Two Years Later**

Dean put the car into park before making sure his coat was settled nicely on his shoulders. His shoulder blades were itching like mad and there was little he could do about it. His entire spine itched really, and he could scratch til his back bled, it wouldn't change the fact that the scales would still be there. Even in this modern day and age, being Dragonkin was seen as a curse by some, and the gold iridescent scales had brought him nothing but trouble since they had started to grow in.

The attitude that most people had about those marked by the dragon, was a left over remnant from the Dark Ages when dragons flew over head, ravaging and burning villages as they pleased. Some villages reached a compromise with the dragons and they were placated with food, jewels and a virgin or two. In exchange they didn't rampage over the land and gave their protection instead. Dean flipped down the visor before he got out to check his reflection. The scales around his eyes and cheeks weren't as noticeable during his shedding season, at most they looked like dry skin, but making sure never hurt. The moisturizer and concealer were doing their job, so he got out of the Impala and walked into the diner he had parked in front of.

The diner was quiet as he entered, the waitress calling for him seat himself, she'd be right with him. Dean nodded and sliding into a booth, grabbed a menu and began to peruse his choices.  
"What can I get you hon?" the waitress asked after a few minutes. She was the motherly type with curly brown hair and her name tag read "Debbie". Dean closed his menu and asked for steak and eggs.  
"Rare on the steak and sunny side up on the eggs, please."  
"You got it. And to drink?"  
"Coffee, please. Black."  
Debbie nodded and went to put in Dean's order.

The town that Dean had pulled into the night before was a quiet nondescript one and so far showed no signs of being anti dragon _or_ pro dragon. The pro dragon towns made Dean jumpy and he tended to leave them as soon as he could. Dean's food came and he happily dug in, sopping up the blood and yolk with his toast. He had never taken his steak rare until the scales started showing up and began shedding. Dean guessed that it had something to do with being Dragonkin. Bobby was always encouraging him to look into his being Dragonkin, the more Dean knew about it, the better he could take care of himself. 

Through the books he had consulted, Dean learned that scales started coming in when a Dragonkin was in their early twenties, it could happen to some as early as nineteen. Dean was right on schedule. They also backed up what Ruby had told him. There was no stopping the heats, just the herbal remedies to control them; so Dean always made sure to be somewhere private, just in case the herbal remedies didn't work. So far they hadn't let him down and made it so Dean could think during his heat. Even if the need to fuck or be fucked was still there, being able to think past or around it, was a blessing. That was all he cared to look for, the thought of anything more, make him feel sick.

After breakfast, Dean spent some time checking out the town, everything seemed to be on the up and up. Until he made a second circle through the town square. This time, they were building something, it looked to be a long banquet table.  
"What's this?" he asked a passerby.  
"The tribute." she replied.  
"For what? What tribute?"  
"For the dragon." she said, the "duh" tone clear as a bell in her voice.  
"What dragon?" Dean bit out.  
"The one that protects Mistletoe." she stated, like Dean should know this. "You must be new in town. The town of Mistletoe has always been watched over by a dragon. Check the library for more info, if you want." She turned to go back to the table.

Dean watched as the townsfolk gathered around the square, the table becoming burdened down with gifts. Most of the tributes seemed to be food, Dean could smell the aroma of a pot of stew from where he stood, but there were other things as well Dean could see food, desserts, money, various trinkets and was that a bolt of silk? Dean watched as a couple added several bolts of fabric to the growing tribute, a few he was certain really were silk. The real deal too, not just a nice imitation. What the hell would a dragon be doing with fabric, let alone silk? The breeze shifted and brought Dean not only the smell of more food, but a snippet of conversation.  
"... with the girls we've left before."  
"He needs...mate...grows restless."  
"Sad, too."  
"Need to look for..."

Dean needed to get out of here, from the sound of things, they were looking for their dragon's mate, and Dean had no intention of being it. He turned to leave the square and in his haste ran into a woman carrying a pitcher. As they fell to the ground, the pitcher's contents sloshed out, hitting Dean in the face. The glass pitcher shattered on impact and Dean groaned when his elbow hit the concrete. Both he and the woman sat up.  
"Are you okay?" Dean asked, wiping his eyes with his hand.  
"I'm fine. Are you-" the woman looked at Dean's face when he lowered his hand. "Oh my. You're him, the one we've been waiting for."  
"Lady, I have no idea _what_ you are talking about." Dean replied, scrambling to his feet.  
"Your scales, you're the one." she whispered. "You're the one!" she repeated louder for others to hear. "Our dragon has been waiting for you." she said, getting up.  
"I highly doubt that. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way." Dean began to walk away.  
"You can't just leave!" the woman called after him.  
"Watch me. No way in hell am I becoming the property of some animal." Dean began to push his way through the crowd.  
"Please! You need to stay."  
"No way." Dean tried to dive further through the people but they were doing their best to keep him.

"Let me pass!" Dean demanded. The people refused, once again saying that he was their dragon's intended and needed to be with him. Dean tried once more but was stopped by a blow to the back of his head.  
"What the hell?" he asked, turning around. Another blow struck and Dean fell to his knees before hitting the ground. As he began to black out, the woman and a man stepped up to him. The man held a large heavy serving tray in his hands.  
"We are sorry, but you are needed." the woman told Dean as the world faded away.


	3. Part Three

"... will not be..."  
"... bruise will heal, he'll..."

The voices faded in and out of Dean's hearing as he slowly regained consciousness. Dean slowly opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling above him, one made of fabric. He was in a tent. As awareness came back, Dean realized that he was on a cot in a tent. What the hell was he doing in a tent? Dean glanced down and saw that his shirt was gone. He ran a hand over his face and could feel his scales a little more. None of that was good. Dean began to sit up, wanting to get out of the cot. Dean's movement caused the doctor to come over.  
"Hold on, you took a nasty spill and hit your head. You've got a small concussion." He pushed Dean back onto the cot and began to look him over.  
"I don't remember what happened."  
"A little memory loss is normal, it should come back in time." the doctor told him.

Dean tried to relax, but the next thing the doctor said made everything come crashing back to him. "We really are very sorry for what happened, but it's all for your own good. Our dragon-"  
"Own good?" Dean snapped, lurching unsteadily to his feet. Dean's vision blurred for a moment as he pushed the doctor away. "None of this is good." Dean ran from the tent as fast as his shaky legs could carry him. Once he was clear of the tent, Dean could see where he was, a field at the edge of town. He had passed it on his way in and thought nothing of it. There were bonfires lit in several fire pits, their light doing their best to push back the encroaching darkness as night came. The table from earlier was there as well, all of the town's offerings piled on and around it. But that wasn't what drew Dean's attention the most. That honor belonged to the very large wooden pole that was impaled in the ground. It looked to be around nine feet tall and was an honest to god _stake_. An honest to god stake that people were meant to be _tied_ to.

They really were going to leave him for the dragon. They truly believed that Dean belonged to this thing.

It is with that thought ringing in his mind, that Dean's eyes rolled up and his legs gave out, the ground rushing up to meet him. He didn't even feel the impact this time. 

Dean lifted his head at the sound of wings beating the air above him. He blinked blearily, trying to get his vision to come into focus. The sun had set, but the nearby fire pits let off enough light for Dean to see the outline of the dragon as it landed in the field. The dragon was blue with gold belly scales and gold spine ridges. Dean swallowed and pulled at the bonds that tied him to the stake, but the rope used to bind him was expertly tied and knotted to keep him there.

The dragon looked at him and seemed to smile before shifting its weight to its back legs and shrinking in size. What was once a creature that could eat Dean in one bite, was now a humanoid creature a little shorter than him. He had hazel eyes and brown hair. The dragon folded his wings back and walked over to the table that held his tribute. The large table was laden down with food, wine and all sorts of things that were made of gold. The table groaned under the weight of the items placed on it. The dragon walked over to Dean and stood in front of him. Dean's heart lodged itself firmly in his throat and adrenalin flooded his system, chasing away the last of the cobwebs.  
"It's been a long time since they left me a male tribute." he heard the dragon say. "Or one that wasn't a virgin." the dragon grinned, delicately sniffing the air around Dean. 

Dean went still at that, he didn't know how the dragon knew that, but it weirded him out either way.  
"But never have they had to truss one up so tightly before. Tell me lovely, you aren't here of your own free will are you?"  
"Gee, you think?" Dean snorted.  
The dragon laughed. "Spunk. I like that in a tribute, I really do. Do you have a name, I do need something to call you after all."  
"Nothing I'd tell you." Dean growled, baring his teeth at the dragon.  
The dragon chuckled and snapped his fingers, causing the table full of gifts to vanish. "We need to be going darling. I'm going to untie you, can I trust you not to fight or run?"

Dean's arms were going numb from being tied behind him for so long, so he nodded and let the dragon cut him free.  
"You can call me Gabriel." the dragon told Dean before shifting again and taking to the air, Dean held in one clawed hand. Dean tried to cover up the very undignified yelp that escaped his mouth, but Gabriel heard anyway, judging by the way he adjusted and tightened his grip on Dean's waist.

The town of Mistletoe was located in a lush green valley and Gabriel flew them to the cliffs in the surrounding area, up to a grandiose house built into the cliff side that over looked the town. Dean was very happy when they landed in what looked to be a large, well kept yard. Gabriel took him into the house through a door that led into the kitchen and sat Dean down at the table. He went to the pantry and removed a first aid kit from the top shelf and turned to tend to Dean. There weren't many, his town had done their best to take care of Dean, but the rope burns could use some attention. Dean's reaction to being touched by Gabriel, was to shove him away and run from the kitchen. Gabriel let him, listening as Dean ran down the hall leading away from the kitchen and towards the front door. It wasn't a straight shot, Dean bounced off the wall as he took the right turn that led to the front door. Gabriel went after Dean, hearing the front door being flung open with a bang and soon seeing Dean race into his front courtyard.

The front courtyard was paved with white cobblestone and fenced in on three sides by wrought iron, broken up by pillars made in the same stone as the ground. While the courtyard was big enough for Gabriel to land in, it faced a sheer drop of several hundred feet. The house was set back from this drop, and Gabriel decided to bring Dean to the side courtyard simply for safety and because it was nicer to look at. Dean stumbled and skidded to a stop, looking wildly for another way out.

"The only way in or out is by air." Gabriel explained, walking slowly up to him.  
"I can always jump." Dean shot back.  
"It's a long way down and I'll just go and catch you and bring you back up." Gabriel answered.  
Dean looked again at the cliff, yeah, it _did_ look like a long way down. "Then why am I here?"  
"Because a big clown hit you here." Gabriel snickered.  
"What?" Dean asked. He had no idea what Gabriel was talking about.  
"Have you never seen a cartoon called 'The Tick'?" Gabriel asked. "It's from the episode where Tick gets punched out into space by a giant clown. He winds up talking with his mind and that's one of the questions he asked himself."  
Dean just looked at Gabriel.  
"You're here because you're my mate, we belong together." Gabriel said.

Dean glared at Gabriel. "The _hell_ I am! I don't belong to anyone, you can't own me." he snarled.  
Gabriel laughed to himself, even if that fact hurt, it was true. While the two of them were bound to be mates, Gabriel couldn't make Dean be his mate. Dean would have to love him on his own or not at all.  
"Will you at least come back inside? It's late and we can talk more about this in the morning." Gabriel began to walk back to the house.  
"Fine." Dean grumbled and stalked back to the house. It wasn't like he had anywhere better to go, besides this way he could stall for time and find his own way out.  
"I'll show you to your room." Gabriel said, shutting and locking up the front door behind them.

Dean and Gabriel came back into the entrance hall, went up the staircase on the right and down a hallway before Gabriel stopped at a door, opening it. "Have a good night. You still haven't told me your name."  
"I don't plan on it." Dean replied, stepping into the room and slamming the door on him, making sure to lock it.  
The rather pointed noise of the lock turning brought a smile to Gabriel's lips. "Feisty. I like it."  
"Fuck you." Dean called from inside the room.  
"Please?" Gabriel asked before walking away and retiring to his own chambers for the evening.

The amount of light in the room is what wakes Dean up the next morning.  
"Why does every damn motel in America not have curtains that fit? Seriously. Every. Damn. One." Dean grumbled, curling up in the bed, wrapping the blankets around himself. Another burst of light coming in from another direction is what makes Dean actually open his eyes and sit up in his bed.  
"What the hell?" he asks in general as a woman with dark shoulder length hair is moving about his room.  
"Oh good, you're awake." she said, looking over her shoulder. "My name's Tessa, breakfast is ready in the main dining room whenever you want it." She continued to straighten Dean's room as he watched before climbing out of bed.  
"Sounds good." he said, beginning to get dressed.  
"Mmmhmm. Gabriel will be happy to see you too."  
Dean stopped in the middle of putting on a shirt and plopped back onto the bed, crossing his arms. "No way in hell am I eating with that guy."

Tessa pulled open the last set of curtains across from Dean's bed before turning back to him. "Well that's too bad then, we've got fresh coffee, bacon and waffles waiting. But if you don't want it..."  
Dean's stomach growled loudly at that, making it's desires known. Dean yanked his shirt on and followed Tessa out the door, ignoring her smile.  
"So how'd you end up here?" he asked as they walked.  
"I was a tribute, all of the servants here are."  
"And you're okay with being _trapped_ here?" Dean asked. "How many of you are here?"  
"We aren't trapped, we stay of our own free will, and there's several of us. Myself and six other girls are maids here, we interact directly with the master and his guests. And then there's around two dozen others that make up the kitchen staff, grounds keepers, and maintenance. Gabriel pays well, he takes care of us and we take care of him. And now you as well." Tessa stopped in front of the dining room. "Enjoy yourself, he's not so bad once you know him, you'll be able to give him what we couldn't."  
"Doubtful." Dean muttered and entered the room.

Dean stared at the table for a moment. It was a thing of beauty that he thought was carved out of oak, and was rather large. It had to be at least ten feet long and every inch of it was covered in some kind of breakfast food. And covered in food or not, it looked like it had been around for awhile. Off to the side of the table was a silver serving cart filled with different types of syrups. Dean doesn't know where his stomach got the megaphone, but he's sure its got one, because Gabriel glanced up from his paper at the head of the table, and looked at Dean.  
"If you don't eat now, your stomach's going to tear itself out of you and devour the entire table. Sit down already." He gestured to the chair near him. Dean pulled the chair away from Gabriel and sat a few feet away from the dragon. He could still reach the bacon, but he felt safer having a few feet between him and the thing that could eat him if it wanted.

"Good morning to you too, Dean." Gabriel replied, watching all of this.  
Dean stopped in the middle of pouring himself a cup of coffee. "How do you know my name?" he asked sharply.  
"Tessa. She found your wallet and told me." Gabriel replied, drinking from his cup.  
Dean grunted obstinately, muttering to himself about maids with sticky fingers, and went back to fixing his plate without a word.  
Gabriel looked back up from his paper. "She doesn't have sticky fingers, I asked. And don't mumble."

Gabriel learned the hard way that his mate wasn't a morning person. Every grumpy and monotone answer he got was a small miracle, it was like pulling teeth. With a pair of rusty pliers.  
"Oh hey, good weather for the week. Except for Friday afternoon, small chance of rain." Gabriel said aloud, trying to draw Dean into an actual conversation.  
Dean ignored him, focusing on his plate in front of him instead.  
Gabriel looked at the sports section. "Superbowl's gonna be on in a few weeks, who do you think'll be in it? My money's on the Leviathans, they've been destroying everyone."  
Dean didn't give an actual answer, he just sneered and mocked Gabriel.

"Well," Gabriel said, flipping a page in his paper. "according to the Fashion section, being a whiny little _bitch_ is in this season." he snapped  
Dean choked on the bite of eggs he had in his mouth, washing it down with some juice. "I am _not_ being a whiny little bitch!" he growled back.  
"I stand corrected, a _sullen_ bitch, then." Gabriel replied mockingly  
"I have every right to be sullen when some _asshole_ , claiming that I'm his mate, _kidnaps me out of a FUCKING field_!" Dean shot back.

Gabriel sighed, rubbing his temples. "Fine. I apologize for that, I hadn't been expecting my mate to be part of my tribute this season."  
"Seriously?" Dean hadn't been expecting an apology and it left him a bit speechless.  
"Yes. This isn't how I pictured us meeting, not at all. I had wanted it to be something more romantic. You know, the sun shining, we see each other across a field of flowers and our eyes meet. It's love at first sight and we go running to meet each other."  
Dean's jaw dropped so fast that it nearly punched through the table. "Seriously?!" he repeated again.  
Gabriel snorted in laughter. "No. I thought we'd meet at a kegger or something."  
Dean's mouth twitched in a half smile, fighting the urge to make it a real one. Realizing this, he turned his chair a little more to the left, giving Gabriel more of his shoulder, but still able to see him out of the corner of his eye.  
Gabriel chuckled at this and left it alone, returning to his paper instead.

After he had eaten a bit, Dean asked if he could be taken out of the house and back to town. He used the fact that he needed his possessions as an excuse. Gabriel put down the cup of coffee he had been drinking. "I'm sorry Dean, but I can't do that."  
"Can't or won't?" Dean challenged.  
"I really can't. I'm sorry." Gabriel repeated.  
"Why not? There's got to be a reason."  
Gabriel nodded. "There is. It's because I've found you. When a dragon has found their mate, they feel this massive urge to keep them around, letting them go is nearly impossible. Our mates are everything to us. They're our world, we'd do anything for them."

Dean laughed in Gabriel's face at that. "You're kidding."  
"No. I'm deadly serious." Gabriel replied looking Dean right in the eye.  
"Prove it. Stand on one foot while rubbing your stomach and patting your head."  
"Seriously?" Gabriel asked. "That's how you want proof?"  
Dean nodded.  
Gabriel sighed softly and pushed back his chair, stepping to the side of the table. He lifted his right leg... and promptly flipped Dean off. Dean snorted in amusement, trying to cover it up as Gabriel sat back down.  
"I thought you'd do anything for me?" Dean asked.  
"I would." Gabriel said, returning to his coffee. "If it would make you truly happy or protect you, I would do anything for you. _That_ however, was just you being an ass and trying to control me."  
Breakfast continued quietly, Gabriel at one point offered to give Dean a tour of the house, all three floors of it, but Dean refused.  
"Okay. If you change your mind, let me know."

Three days later Dean was starting to wish he had taken Gabriel up on his offer. He was bored and tired of just hanging out in his room. When he had tried to look around on his own for a way out, he kept getting lost and turned around in the hallways, and the maids were always there, watching him. It was like they knew what he was up to or something.  
"Help you with something Dean?" Tessa asked.  
"No. Just got turned around is all." Dean told her.  
"Not problem. It'd be easier to find your way around if you talked to Gabriel."  
Dean nodded at that begrudgingly. "Are you sure? I mean, couldn't you give me a tour?"  
Tessa laughed softly. "No Dean, I can't. Gabriel said that he wants to give you the tour himself."

 

Dean found him in the library reading in the sun. Gabriel put down the book and smiled at Dean "Ready for that tour?" he asked.  
Dean nodded. "I keep getting turned around, it's like the hallways from _The Shining_." he admitted.  
"I like that book." Gabriel said, getting up and leading Dean out of the library.

"We'll start in your wing." Gabriel said as he led them back to a familiar starting point for Dean.  
"My wing?" Dean asked.  
"It's the guest/recreational wing. Unless you've already looked around it?" Gabriel replied as they went back up the stairs.  
Dean shook his head, he had been too busy, well he didn't want to use the word 'sulking', but it was one that fit. He had been camped out in his room sulking and trying to come up with ways to get out. He was going to feel like an idiot if the answer had been near him the entire time.  
"Well, now's as good time as any." Gabriel walked down the hall that housed Dean's room and opened a pair of doors across from Dean's.

The doors opened into a rather large den. Dean thought the room was as big as his bedroom and bathroom combined. Scattered throughout the room were several chairs and sofas, along with coffee and end tables in various seating arrangements. Floor lamps were also scattered about as well. The wall across from the doorway was mostly made of windows. One of the windows was actually a door and it opened up onto a stone balcony that ran the length of the room. There was a large stone fireplace on the left end of the room with a couple of chairs and a small table in front of it. On the right end was a pool table and an air hockey table.  
"You play?" Gabriel asked, pointing over to the pool table.  
Dean nodded. "Yeah."  
"Any good?"  
"Very." Dean had no problem admitting that, he kicked ass at pool.  
Gabriel grinned, it kinda reminded Dean of a shark's smile. "Good to know."

They continued down the hall, Gabriel pointing out a few more bedrooms, all of which were on the left side of the hall Dean noticed, when Gabriel comes to a stop in front of a door on the right. It and Dean's room are the only ones on the right.  
"I have to admit, this is my favorite room in this wing." Gabriel said, opening the door so Dean could walk in.  
It was a drive in theater. Gabriel had a freaking drive in _theater_ in his house. With cars! And a concessions stand! One of the walls was actually a movie screen and there were four cars sitting in the room at different points. 

A dark blue Chevrolet convertible reminded him strongly of the Impala and made him long for his baby. The color reminded him of the Tardis from Doctor Who, a show that Dean would deny watching, if asked. An old green Cougar was next to it, poor car had some dings in the hood and a crease in the front fender. Behind and back a bit was a station wagon complete with the wood panelling, Dean could just hear the '70s calling for it. The last car was an orange Bobcat, the color the same shade as the beat up old beetle that he and Sam had run away in.

Gabriel showed Dean the concessions stand, which was overflowing with candy and popcorn and all sorts of goodies.  
"And that's not all." Gabriel said. "Check this out." He leaned over, flipping the light switch. The room went dark and the ceiling began to light up with pinpricks of light. Soon the ceiling was a view of the night sky and Gabriel reached over again, this time for the dimmer switch. He turned it and the moon in the "sky" went through its phases, at the brightest point, you could see well enough in the room to move around, but still see the movie.  
"Nice huh?" he asked.  
Dean nodded watching the sky above them. They had been watching the night sky for a few minutes when Gabriel offhandedly commented, "None of the cars actually drive anymore, but the station wagon's great for making out in." He grinned at Dean, who was doing his best impersonation of a fish out of water before shutting his mouth and walking away, a faint blush running up his neck.

Downstairs on the first floor was a gym, and while it was mostly made for the use of a dragon, several of the staff used it as well. Gabriel opened a door at the back of the gym and Dean followed him through it.  
"Where are we?" Dean asked.  
"In the cliff, the house extends into it and goes down for a bit. What you've seen is what most people see." Gabriel flipped another switch on the wall next to the door and the lights blazed on. Gabriel let the door swing closed and walked ahead. "Come on, I'll show you the pool and the sauna."

The pool was further back in the cave, light streaming in from a section of the wall that had been opened to let in light. A small flight of steps led down to it. Dean looked at it in awe.  
"Wow, it's big."  
"Olympic size and twenty feet deep." Gabriel replied.  
Why? That's kinda big don't you think, you'd really just need around eight feet or so."  
"Yeah, for this form." Gabriel said, gesturing at his body. "But every once in a while, I like to stretch my wings and swim in the deep end."  
The sauna was located at the deep end of the pool, the door open. The room was carved out of the rock with built in benches and a stack of towels waiting outside the door.  
Gabriel turned to Dean. "Are you hungry? I could use something to eat." Gabriel walked out of the cave not waiting for Dean.

It was in the kitchen that things started to get strange. When Gabriel came into the kitchen, the staff greeted him by name and seemed happy to see him. Gabriel took a few minutes to talk to each of his staff, to see how they were doing and to introduce them to Dean.  
"That coffee you like so much, Daniel is the master of it. Don't make him angry if you want it to keep coming. He also does excellent hot cocoa and tea."  
Dean met a staff of six that cooked meals for the household and covered any type of food that could be wanted.  
"Have you introduced him to Granny yet?" Daniel asked.  
"Saving her for last." Gabriel replied, motioning for Dean to follow him to another part of the kitchen. This part of the kitchen looked like someone had taken the kitchen from the show _Leave It To Beaver_ and grafted it into the rest of the decor.  
"Granny?" Dean asked.  
"You'll see." Gabriel smiled.

The sound of chopping reached their ears first as Gabriel walked up to a little old lady. Her hair was braided and fell down her back.She looked up from the peach she was cutting up and smiled at them, putting down her knife. Her table was covered with the start of a pie and she had two sitting on another smaller table as they cooled.  
"I heard you finally found your mate, is this him?" she asked, wiping her hands on her apron.  
"Yes." Gabriel nodded. "Grandma, this is Dean. Dean, this is Grandma, she's my baker and makes some of the most fantastic pies I've ever had." Gabriel's hand slowly made its way towards one of the pies cooling on the nearby table, trying to stay in Granny's side vision.  
"Grandma?" Dean questioned.  
"Everyone calls me that, or Granny. My real name is- Gabriel! Get your hand off that pie this instant!" she snapped at Gabriel, slapping his hand with a wooden mixing spoon.

Dean jumped and turned to see Gabriel jerking his hand back mere inches from one of the cooling pies.

"Those are for dinner tonight young man, they aren't ready yet." she continued, shooing Gabriel away from the table. She turned her attention back to Dean. "My name is actually Annabelle, but most people here call me Grandma or Granny. I tend to answer to those more than my actual name."  
"Young man nothing." Gabriel muttered. "I'm older then you are..."  
"I don't care, you'll do as you're told." Annabelle replied waving the spoon in Gabriel's face.  
"Aw, c'mon Annabelle, don't be like that." Gabriel said.  
"Don't you 'c'mon Annabelle' me! I know you, you'll just try to sweet talk me into giving you some, and it's not gonna work." Annabelle retorted.  
"Would it help if I begged?" Gabriel dropped to his knees in front of her. "Please Annabelle?"  
"No, you can wait. Keeping your fingers out of that pie won't kill you." Annabelle began to go back to the pie waiting on the table.  
"You used to not mind when I got my fingers in your pie. In fact there were times when you down right _encouraged_ it." Gabriel smirked lecherously.

Annabelle whirled back around and cuffed Gabriel upside the head, a faint blush coloring her skin as she smiled. Gabriel yelped in mock pain and rolled on the floor, acting for all the world like what she had done to him had really hurt, when in truth he was just being melodramatic.  
Dean watched what was happening in front of him in opened mouth shock.  
"Shoo Gabriel! Even if that was true once upon a time, you're not getting any now. Get on out of here, we have work to do." 

Gabriel whimpered, playing up the "pain" for all it was worth. "But what about my pain? What about my mental agony? I just got trounced by a little granny, doesn't that count for anything?"  
Annabelle snorted, not believing Gabriel for a second. "It'll be worth another smack if you don't get on out of here." She waved her mixing spoon in Gabriel's direction.  
Gabriel backed away in mock terror. "I beg for your mercy. I'll never be bad again, I swear. No more trying to sneak sweets."  
"That is the biggest load of malarky I've ever heard from you." Annabelle replied. "You'll try again. You always do. Now, shoo."

A chuckle from behind them made Dean remember they weren't alone. He looked back and saw that the whole kitchen staff had stopped what they had been doing and watched what happened between Annabella and Gabriel. They were all trying not to laugh. Gabriel stood back up. "Then I concede to you and your spoon." He bowed with an exaggerated bow.  
Annabelle nodded. "You know it. Now get on outta here before I cut you off again. And you know I will."  
Gabriel nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

As they came out of the kitchen Dean quietly asked what Gabriel did to be cut off last time.  
"I don't like talking about it, it's not one of my prouder moments." Gabriel whispered back. "Let's just say that it involved her oven and one of her pies, cherry I think it was. I was not in a mood to wait and because of that, wound up having to get her a new oven. It's all very embarrassing."

As they were passing by the stairs again, Dean pointed at the staircase leading in the opposite direction. "Where do those stairs lead to?"  
Gabriel looked over at the stairs and then ran over to a set of drapes hanging from a window, wrapping one around him like a cape. "That's the West wing, no one's allowed there but me!"  
"Why?" Dean asked.  
"It's forbidden!" Gabriel said dramatically. At Dean's look, he sighed and let the curtain fall back against the wall. "God, have you never seen _Beauty and the Beast_?"  
"Do I _look_ like a little girl?" Dean snorted.  
"You don't need to be a little girl to enjoy a good movie." Gabriel huffed.  
Dean laughed. "Great. I get kidnapped by a dragon that likes Disney and pie. What's next, My Little Pony wallpaper?"  
"Real unicorns are assholes, but Pegasus' make for great buffalo wings." Gabriel retorted.  
Dean gave Gabriel a rather incredulous look, was he for real? "What's really up there?"  
"I was serious, my rooms are up there. Why, did you wanna come make out?" Gabriel asked.  
Dean crossed his arms across his chest. "No. I was just curious."

Later that night, Tessa was dropping off some towels for Dean and asked how the tour went.  
"Good, it was...interesting." Dean replied.  
"Interesting?" Tessa asked.  
"Yeah. I wasn't expecting the little old lady in the kitchen."  
"I take it you met Annabelle." Tessa sat on Dean's bed, facing him.  
Dean nodded. "I did. She hit him with a spoon when he tried to steal some of a pie."  
Tessa laughed at that. "Yeah, that's Annabelle all right."  
What's the deal with her? I met most of the staff and most of you are in your thirties, she looked to be in her seventies."  
"She is. She's been with Gabriel since she was eighteen, I think. She was part of his tribute that year, and Gabriel kept her for her baking skills, he fell in love with her pies."  
"He said as much." Dean replied. "So she's been here for that long?"  
"Yes. At first." Tessa looked like she had more to say but stopped herself.  
"At first?" Dean asked.  
"At first, yes it was all about her baking, Gabriel loved her dessert skills. Over time they got to know each other and eventually slept together, she became his surrogate." Tessa looked away, not really sure if she wanted to see the look on Dean's face.

"Surrogate? I thought dragons just looked for their mates." Dean said confusedly.  
"They do, but they do get lonely while they look, it can take years to find their mate. You are Gabriel's mate and mean everything to him, but Annabelle holds a very special place in his heart. When she dies, he'll be very upset."   
"Are any of the others like Annabelle?" Dean asked, promptly shoving down the flare of jealously he felt. Along with the possible anger. He wasn't either of those things.  
"No. Some of us, we- we've been intimate with Gabriel, yes. But nothing like Annabelle. And Annabelle is nothing like the two of you." Tessa admitted. Her own time in Gabriel's bed had been short, both willing to admit that there was no spark between them.  
"You act like I'm already fucking him." Dean muttered.  
"Some day he won't be so scary. He really does want to know you, you should give the guy a try." Tessa squeezed Dean's hand. "You're very lucky to have him, as he is to have you."

 

Time goes by as Dean and Gabriel begin to get to know each other. One of the things that bought them together is a shared love of music. Gabriel has a vast collection of music, quite a bit of it on vinyl, and it was Def Leppard's Rock of Ages that won Dean over of all things. Gabriel had been in his den, the record playing when Dean knocked on the door, asking if he could stay and listen. Gabriel was willing to take small victories wherever he could in wooing his mate, and nodded, happy that Dean was willing to spend some time with him.

One night while listening to some music and talking about their favorite artists, Dean wandered over to a section of shelves and began to look for something new to listen to, the previous record having come to an end. Dean sipped from his glass of scotch and let his eyes wander over band names, nothing catching his eye at the moment. He decided to abandon vinyl all together and ambled over to Gabriel's CD collection, fingers running over the cases stopping at the "Best of..." collection. Dean can't believe what he's seeing and puts down his drink to take a closer look. It's a "Best of..." collection all right, he stopped at "Best of Chicago". Something inside him snickered at the thought of Gabriel listening to Chicago of all things. "A "Best of..." collection? Why? Nothing better to listen to?" he asked, turning to Gabriel before looking back at the collection. "And one for Disney? Why am I not surprised?"  
Gabriel choked and spat out his drink. "That one's just there to be fair and to have a complete collection."

Dean snorted at this comment, he knew it was partly a lie. "You know Disney was anti dragon right?"  
Gabriel sipped from his glass. "No way, you're joking. No way in hell was Disney anti dragon."  
"Dude, he so was. I've read some of his essays, they're well written but get fairly nasty." Dean went on to name some examples that he could remember and yeah, they were just as dark and grisly as he could remember. He was in the middle of recalling an essay on a human/dragon string of fights when he realized what he was doing: Having a pleasant conversation with a dragon. Further more, having a conversation with one on the proposed and attempted genocide of his entire species. Dean's stomach turned to ice and twisted sickly in him.  
"I need to go." he said, not caring that he was stopping in mid conversation, his face turning pale.  
Gabriel immediately came over, the look on Dean's face making him concerned. "What's wrong?" he asked, one hand reaching out to Dean.  
Dean pulled away before Gabriel could make contact. "Nothing, I just need to go is all."  
Dean left the once pleasant den and rushed for his room.

Dean burst into his room, the door banging against the wall before he could shut and lock it. Dean stumbled over to his bathroom, hanging onto the sink, his stomach heaving and rolling. Dean waited to be sick but nothing came up. When his stomach had calmed down, Dean shakily let go of the sink edge and splashed some water on his face. Moving his arms made Dean's back itch and he took off his shirt to see what was wrong. The water dripped down his face as Dean turned to get a better look at his back. Huh, he never noticed it before, but in this light, they looked really pretty.  
"They aren't supposed to be pretty!" Dean can hear John shout in his head. Dean flinches as if the man had shouted it in his ear right there. John was right, they weren't pretty, they were a sign that Dean was an abomination.

Remembering this just brings up more things that Dean had hoped he would forget given enough time.

_Mom was gone, she had died and wasn't coming back. Dean wished she would, Dad was different without her, all angry and mean. For some reason he was obsessed with dragons and Dragonkin, he hated them and seemed hell bent on passing that hate onto Dean. One night, John was showing Dean pictures of the scale patterns of Dragonkin and explaining about them and their connection to dragons._  
"I like that one, it's pretty." Dean commented looking at one of the pictures, a pale purple string of stars across a young woman's back.  
The comment caused John to slap Dean across the face. "They aren't pretty, those things are animals and the things they associate with are monsters. The scales are how we find and kill them. Do you understand?"  
Dean sniffled, rubbing his eyes and nodded. 

Dean shook his head, doing his best to shove the memory away, what's in the past should stay in the past. He ran a hand over his lower back, pausing to scratch at an itchy spot. A few scales flaked off, revealing new scales under it. He was beginning to molt again. Dean counted off in his head how long he had been here. One, two, three. Dean's eyes widened, his stomach clenching. Three months. He had been here, no that was impossible, he _hadn't_ been here for three months already had he? Dean counted again. And again. And again. After coming up with the same number every time, Dean had to admit the truth. He had been here for three months and was about to shed and go into heat.

Dean's heart skipped a few beats at that realization, fear turning his insides icy. He was going to molt and then go into heat around a dragon. _He was going to molt and then go into heat around a dragon!_ He couldn't do that, God only know what would happen! Dean's mind raced as all the stories the council and his father had told him flew to the front of his mind and vied for attention. Stories of how dragons took young men and women off the street to satisfy themselves, often biting, clawing and mutilating their victims, leaving them crippled, paralyzed or dead when they were done with them. 

And was it the females that were barbed on the inside or the males that had barbs on their penises? That thought made Dean's breath catch in his throat, he couldn't remember which it was and like hell was he going to ask Gabriel... Speaking of Gabriel, Dean wondered briefly on his size and nearly choked when the idea of Gabriel with a rather sizeable barbed penis popped into his mind. Dean shook his head to get rid of the idea, but it just wouldn't leave.

All this did, was bring up more memories from his childhood. John lecturing him that while dragons were animals in need of being put down, Dragonkin were worse. Dragonkin were foul, twisted things that were the result of a human mating with a dragon. They weren't to be shown pity, nor were they to be considered human. They were to be exterminated like the disgusting, diseased vermin that they were. They were nothing.

Dean looked at his reflection in the mirror. Most people would have seen a handsome young man with scales and left it at that. Dean didn't. All he saw was something that should have been killed a long time ago. Dean looked away, hating his reflection, hating himself. He wasn't even human, wasn't sure if he had ever been to begin with. Dean's head was throbbing, he had managed to ignore it thus far, but the headache now roared to the front of his head, settling right behind his eyes. 

Dean opened the medicine cabinet and began to reach for the aspirin, when he saw the sleeping pills on the shelf below. Dean picked up that bottle instead and walked back into his room, grabbing the bottle of whiskey he had snagged a few weeks ago from Gabriel's collection, and sat on his bed. The echoes of John's voice ringing in his ears.   
"No! You don't pity them Dean, you put them down like the animals they are. The day you feel sympathy for one of those things or their kind, you deserve to be put down like the rest."

Maybe John was right. Maybe dragons and Dragonkin were nothing but a blight on humanity that needed to be wiped out. That still didn't change the fact that a small part of him thought that they were okay. Ruby had been nothing but nice to him, helping him during his first heat and showing him what to look for. Tessa, Annabelle and all the others here at the house were some of the nicest people he had met. And Gabriel... Gabriel was nothing like he'd thought a dragon would be like. He was funny, kind, and more than willing to take things as slow as Dean needed to. Dean wasn't sure if he loved Gabriel, it felt too early for that, but he knew he _liked_ Gabriel. And that was nearly just as bad.

Dean's stomach twisted and rolled on itself at that thought. He liked Gabriel. He actually liked a dragon and liked being around him. Dean took a swig of whiskey, hoping it would settle his stomach. He liked a dragon. A part of him shuddered at that, taking another drink of whiskey before popping open the bottle of sleeping pills.

 

The empty pill bottle sat on the bedside table, the bottle of whiskey next to it. It'd been several long minutes and Dean felt soft and fuzzy around the edges, which meant that everything was kicking in, good. Soon there won't be a thing to worry about.  
"Dean, are you all right?" Gabriel called through the door as he knocked. "Talk to me please? Let me help?" he asked. The knock startles Dean and his leg bangs into the bedside table, knocking the bottles to the floor.  
Gabriel banged on the door. "Dean! Answer me!"  
Dean's answer is very slurred, he's not even sure if he was actually able to form words as he got up to tell Gabriel to leave him alone.  
"Dean!" Gabriel shouts, hearing a bang in the room. Gabriel backed up and aimed a kick near the lock of the door sending it flying when the kick connected. 

Gabriel ran inside, ignoring the door hanging by a hinge as he saw Dean lying on the floor of his room, the bottles at his feet.  
"Oh God." Gabriel gasped, falling next to Dean and slapping his face. "Dammit Dean!" he growled when he got no response. Gabriel threw a chair through the nearest window and scooping Dean into his arms, jumped through it. The wind caught Gabriel's wings as he transformed and flew as fast as he could to Mistletoe's hospital.

_It happened the summer he was eight. John's obsession with all things dragon was at an all time high and he had something planned for Dean, something big. One night John had come home all excited, he didn't get that way often and Dean wondered why._  
"You'll see, you're coming with me." John replied when Dean asked. He paid the sitter extra to stay late with Sam and took Dean out to the car.  
"Where are we going?" Dean asked again.  
"You'll see. Don't worry, you'll like it." John said as he started the car. 

_A little while later, John pulled over and Dean was able to see where they were. He had brought them to the river. John led Dean to where a boat was waiting for them. They got in and John brought them to a small shack on the river bank. Dean didn't know where they were, there had been several twists and turns in their trip down river. But he did recognize the people that were waiting for them. It was the council, Mr. Walker is the one who helps him out of the boat. The other adults say hello to John and they go into the shack._

_It's not that big, it's a little bigger then Dean's room at home, really. In the middle of the room, tied to a chair is a young woman with red hair. She's older then Dean, but not as old as the other adults. Dean can see that she's scared and she's crying, begging to be let go. The adults ignore her pleas and the first to hit her is Lilith. The girl's lip splits open with the blow. The others follow suit their hands and voices raining down on the girl, calling her names and spairing her no pain at all. The girl's screams start to hurt Dean's ears. Her shirt is ripped by Zachariah and Dean sees the marks on her back. A chain of daisies in green dance down her skin. She's Dragonkin. Dean looks away, closing his eyes, he doesn't want to see this. Doesn't want to watch the others hurt this girl._  
"Watch Dean. Open your eyes and watch." John orders, forcing his son to turn back and open his eyes. Dean shakes his head and refuses.  
"Do it." John growls. "Now. These things can die, you need to see how." 

_The council members have finished beating the girl. She's alive, but barely, her face is swollen on one side and blood drips down her chin. They step away from her and Dean is pushed forward by John, a hunting knife pressed into his hand._  
"It's your turn Dean." John tells him.  
Dean shakes his head. "No, I don't want to."  
"Please. Don't." the girl says, her lips cracking.  
John ignores her and tells Dean that it is his turn, that if he loves his father, he'll prove it by killing the animal in front of them. 

_The girl watches both of them and begs Dean not to kill her. "I don't deserve this. I didn't do anything to deserve this."  
Dean looks at her, blinking as his eyes tear up. He really doesn't want to do this but the adults are watching him and waiting. The girl continues to beg for her life and for just a moment, Dean wants to, he can see the spot under her ribs where the blade would go in. Easily. Neatly. Hardly any pain at all. If anything it would make this thing shut up and stop making all that noise. And for a split second, that's all Dean can see her as, a thing begging for its life, a thing to be shut up. He places the blade to the right spot and begins to apply pressure. And stops. He can't do it._

_**"It's wrong. You know it is."** he hears what sounds like his mother say in his mind. **"Don't do this."**_

_John sees the hesitation on Dean's face and wraps his hand around Dean's, shoving the knife into the girl's chest. The light fades quickly from her eyes, but what bothers Dean the most, is the silence. None of the others speak and the girl's cries are gone. Dean kinda misses it and wishes he could hear them again. Anything would be better than this awful silence._

The beeping is Dean's first clue that he isn't at Gabriel's. Dean opens his eyes and realizes that he's in the hospital. He has no idea why he's there, but he's happy for the noise, after so much quiet any noise is welcome. He stays quiet, a few tears sliding down his cheek, he had forgotten about that girl. After a bit, a nurse came to check on Dean and sent for a doctor. Dean remains quiet the entire time, withdrawing into himself. The doctor soon left and went to let Gabriel know that Dean was awake.  
"He won't talk to me, maybe he will with you." the doctor says.

Gabriel walked into the room, going straight to Dean's bed.  
"Dean, what-"  
Gabriel can't even finish the sentence he was going to say, Dean's heat monitor skyrockets and Dean begins to hyperventilate, pushing himself as far and as fast as he can away from Gabriel.  
"Get away from me!"  
"Dean-" Gabriel began to say.  
"I said get away, you animal!" Dean snarled, his eyes narrowing. Dean looked at him in disgust and anger. "You're nothing but a monster."  
Gabriel swallowed at that, trying to hide the wince brought on by Dean's words. "Why are you saying this? You're starting to sound like a Hunter."

Dean glared at Gabriel. "I _am_ a Hunter." he hissed. "And I can't believe that I let my guard down around you, even a little. I hate you, you're nothing to me." Dean went on to say that he's not too fond of the town for helping Gabriel trap him and that he hates being a Dragonkin. "I should be dead, why can't I be?" Dean whispered, rapidly blinking away tears. Gabriel moved to comfort Dean.  
"No!" Dean shouted, pushing Gabriel away and curling himself into as small a ball as he could on the hospital bed. "I can't be around you." His hands scratch at his shoulder and neck, a few scales slough off and fall onto the sheets. Dean shuts his eyes and buries his head in his arms.

At first Gabriel doesn't understand, he's been around when Dean molted before, and it didn't bother him then. He tried again to comfort Dean and once again Dean pushed him away. "I can't control it, it's been three months."  
 _"What does time have to do with this?"_ Gabriel wondered, before it all clicked into place. His mate was about to go into heat and in Dean's state, being around Gabriel was the last thing he needed.  
"What do you need me to do?" he quietly asked.  
"Just leave." Dean whispered.  
Gabriel nodded. "I can do that." Hearing that made Gabriel feel like a kicked and hungry puppy that had been thrown out into the rain. It would hurt but he could do it. Gabriel walked out of Dean's room and pulled the doctor aside and wrote him a check.  
"Fill in what you need to take him back by helicopter. I have some things I need to get ready for him."

Gabriel went back into Dean's room to let him know that he would be going back to the house soon and that Gabriel wouldn't be there.  
"Okay. Why are you doing this?" Dean asked softly.  
Gabriel started to brush his hand against Dean's cheek. Dean pulled away again, his hands shaking slightly. It made Gabriel's eyes tear up and he let his hand drop.  
"Because I would do _anything_ for you. I'll be back at the end of your heat." Gabriel turned around and walked out of the room, shoulders slumping when Dean couldn't see him.  
Emotionally exhausted, Dean curled up in the hospital bed and fell asleep.

When Dean woke up, he saw the familiar ceiling of his room at the house. The beeping sound made him look around and see the IV drip attached to him. One of the maids, a blond named Jo he thinks is sitting in a chair off to the side of his bed, reading. She looked up from her book and smiled. "Good you're awake. How are you feeling?" she asked getting up and checking Dean's pulse.  
Dean made a noncommittal noise and watched Jo as she checked his vitals. A familiar ache ran through him as he noticed how good she smelled. Dean began to caress her arm, growling softly.  
Jo straightened up from her exam. "You've slept through your molt, and I have work to do Dean." She pulled away from him. "But Gabriel's made preparations for your heat, I'll be right back." She scooped up her book and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

After a few minutes of waiting and Dean arranging his pillows so he could sit up in bed, Jo came back. And she wasn't alone. Behind her were at least two dozen people, male and female, all different heights, hair colors and skin tones. All appeared to be in their twenties and all of them beautiful.  
"While you were asleep, Gabriel asked for volunteers from town to help you during your heat." Jo told Dean as the last person filed in.  
"So he ordered a harem for me?" Dean asked disbelievingly, ignoring the group of people. "And he's okay with me fucking complete strangers in his house?"  
"He asked the town for help and they volunteered. They're being well paid and cared for while they're here, regardless of if you use them or not." Jo replied.  
Dean looked at the group again. "No. Get them out of here Jo."  
Jo nodded, opening the door again. "You heard him. Consider yourselves on standby for now and go relax. You all know where you can or can't go and what's allowed for the duration of your stay." The group filed out and Jo turned back to Dean.  
"Are you hungry? I can bring something from the kitchen."  
Dean thought for a moment. Food was not a good idea right now, his stomach still felt like it was tied up in knots, anything he ate would just come back up. He shook his head and spent the rest of the day ignoring his heat as best he could.

By the middle of the night, Dean's body had had enough and was making its demands known. Dean was ready to climb the walls by the time he gave in and stalked out of his room and across the hall to his den. Standing in the doorway, in nothing but his boxers, Dean could see all twenty-four volunteers spread out around the den. All were in some form of relaxation, reading, playing pool or air hockey, talking to each other. All of them looked up when Dean came in. Dean watched the group and breathed in deeply, taking their scents in. Doing so made a few of the ones who were nearer to him, shiver. 

Dean looked around before settling on a girl to his right. She was exactly what Dean needed, small, Asian and well endowed. Dean held out his hand to her and she put down the crossword she had been doing, taking his hand instead. Dean smiled and tossed her over his shoulder, leaving the den and slamming his bedroom door shut behind them.

After he's done with Claire, Dean made a point of remembering her name, Dean picks another partner, and another. His last ones were a set of twins, a boy and a girl. They had been sitting by the fireplace when Dean saw them. Well, Renee had been sitting, her brother Phillip had been standing by it. They had curly reddish brown hair, dark eyes and olive skin with a sprinkling of freckles. Dean had fun chasing down every single one. He made sure to remember everyone's names and something about them. Claire, for instance was ticklish behind her knees. Renee and Phillip had matching tattoos of dolphins on their calves from a trip to Hawaii.


	4. Part Four

Gabriel eased the front door shut behind him, locking it.  
"Welcome back sir. The volunteers are ready to go." Tessa said. "How were things?" Gabriel asked, shrugging out of his jacket and letting Tessa take it.  
"Good, all things considered. Dean's asleep at the moment."  
"Let him sleep and send the volunteers home by helicopter with my thanks." Gabriel replied.  
Tessa nodded and Gabriel headed upstairs.

Dean wakes up to Tessa moving around his room, cleaning up the remains of his activities and just generally straightening up the room.  
"Oh good, you're awake. Did you sleep well and will you be joining Gabriel for dinner?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at the sound of the sheets rustling and the mumble of Dean as he woke up.  
"Hmm?" Dean asked sleepily as the questions filtered though his half awake brain. "Oh yeah, dinner sounds good..." he mumbled, snuggling into the pillow. "Wait, what? Gabriel?" he asked when it had all filtered through, sitting up in bed.  
"Yeah, Gabriel." Tessa replied, tying a bag of trash closed.  
"He's back?" Dean asked a little more excited then he really wanted to admit to.  
Tessa nodded. "Came home while you were still sleeping. Why?"  
"I should..." The rest was lost in a mumble, but Tessa was fairly sure it was: "go say hi and thank him.".  
She grinned and grabbing the last bit of trash, teased Dean before leaving. "I'm sorry, what was that? It sounded like you wanted to go say hi and thank him?"  
Dean didn't answer, just threw a pillow at the closing door before getting up and heading for the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Dean quickly brushed his teeth and washed his face before tackling his hair and putting on a change of clothes. It's while he's combing his hair and adding some hair gel, that he realizes what he's doing. He's primping. For Gabriel. He drops the comb while muttering to himself that he is _not_ primping for the dragon, and ran his fingers through his hair, messing up the neat style he had before. Satisfied, Dean leaves his room in search of Gabriel.

On the way to Gabriel's den, he muttered to himself that he's just gonna tell Gabriel thank you and that's all. Quick and easy, he'll be out in a few minutes, tops. Dean knows that he'll find Gabriel in his den. He doesn't know _how_ , just that he will. He isn't disappointed and follows the sound of jazz music coming from the room. Dean knocked on the door frame.  
"Come in." Gabriel called from his chair. "Get you a drink?" he asked, holding up his glass.  
"Sure." Dean sat down as Gabriel made him a drink, just some ice water this time. "I wanted to say thanks. You know for...well, everything."  
Gabriel smiled, giving Dean his drink. "You're welcome Dean." While the thank you is a little stilted, it's nice to know it was what Dean needed.  
"How was your trip? Tessa and Jo said you were up in the mountains?" Dean asked, sipping from his glass. "Have a good time?"

Gabriel nodded. "Had a great time. Got to visit some old friends, see the sights, got some fresh air. Jerked off enough to impregnate a few trees, did some fishing, I had a ton of fun. I really should take you up some time, you'd like it."  
Dean choked on his drink as Gabriel chimed in that he was sure that he might have gotten off enough to impregnate a rock or two as well. The coughing turned into a laugh as Gabriel asked if Dean's okay.  
"I'm fine." Dean replied.  
"Good. I'm glad you're feeling better." Gabriel put down his glass unsure if he should ask his next question. "Did you want to talk about what happened? I mean before, in your room and the hospital?"  
Dean shook his head. "Not now Gabriel. Maybe... maybe later."  
Gabriel let the subject drop and they moved on to more pleasant things.

It took a lot of time, but eventually Dean began to open up about his family and John in particular. Gabriel was not surprised to hear that Dean was the product of an affair, a Dragonkin from two human parents was very rare and hardly ever happened, the baby didn't normally make it and died. If the baby did live, it meant that both parents had a Dragonkin somewhere in their family tree.  
"It's not that I don't blame her, I really don't, John was always  
very up in arms about dragons and how dangerous they were. At least now I know why."  
"If you want, we could try looking up David's family, you could get to know them." Gabriel offered.  
"I don't know, maybe." Dean replied. In truth, he wasn't sure how he felt about meeting the family of a man he never knew.

Playing Frank Sinatra one night is what made Dean talk some more.   
"My mom liked this song. She used to hum it to help me sleep. It's from Casablanca, right?"  
"As Time Goes By? Yeah, it is. You ever see the movie?" Gabriel asked.  
"No, heard it was good though.." Dean replied, sipping his drink, rum this time.  
"It is. I got it in the drive in, we can watch it later this week."  
Dean nods. "Sounds good. I don't remember much about her, she died when I was seven, but I remember her humming this to me and rocking me to sleep. Sammy too, when he came around."  
"Sammy?" Gabriel questioned.  
"My little brother, mom had him with John." Dean answered. "He helped me get out of town and somewhere safe, well safer. I feel bad for having sent him back, but I couldn't take care of him and he deserved better." Dean sighed and drained his glass, holding it out when he was done, for a refill.

Gabriel refilled Dean's glass and sipped from his own. Whatever demons Dean normally suppressed were out in full force tonight and he told Gabriel a little more about John.  
"He wasn't always so bad. When mom was alive and we were a family he was down right normal. We were happy.But after she died, something in him just snapped."

When Dean talked about John, Gabriel wanted to hit something, mainly John.He listened in stunned silence when Dean told him about how John would hit him when Dean couldn't correctly remember all the ingredients to a potion to kill a dragon or the soft spots in hurting one in a fight. Gabriel had squeezed his glass so hard it had shattered in his attempt to keep his anger under control. And when he had destroyed several punching bags, a few trees had taken the brunt of his anger. If Gabriel ever found John, well he's sure a small part of Dean wouldn't mind if Gabriel toasted him right there on the spot. Well, pretty sure, at least.

"I never meant to kill her. I didn't want to." Dean said suddenly. He was beginning to slur a little and Gabriel thought he had had enough for the night.  
"Kill who?" he asked softly.  
"The pretty Dragonkin girl. She had daisies on her back, green ones." Dean quietly replied. "I didn't want to, but the knife was there and they were waiting..."  
"Who was waiting?" Gabriel asked, slipping closer to Dean where he sat on the sofa.  
"John and the council. He put the knife in my hands, but I couldn't do it. I swear I didn't want to." Dean rubbed away the tears and sniffled.  
"It's all right, I believe you." Gabriel sat next to Dean.  
"I couldn't do it, so John helped, and she died. She begged for her life and she died anyway."

Gabriel held Dean as he cried himself to asleep, before taking him back to his part of the house. Gabriel tucked Dean into bed and kissed him lightly on the cheek before going back to his own rooms.Yeah, if Gabriel ever ran into John, the man was so toasted. 

They didn't talk about what happened the night before, but Dean did smile when Gabriel squeezed his shoulder the following day, and didn't pull away. The next couple of weeks were spent watching movies and talking to each other, Gabriel was right about Casablanca, it was good.

"I'm going down to the town today, do you want to come?" Gabriel asked.  
"I thought you didn't want me leaving." Dean said.  
"The town's okay. I can deal with that now." Gabriel admitted. "Besides your heat's coming and we need to get things in order, is there anyone you really want to invite back up here? I'll see about making arrangements for myself as well."  
"You don't-" Dean started to say.  
"I don't what, Dean?"  
"Have to leave. I think if we don't see each other, I should be fine." Dean looked away. "Besides I feel bad, kicking you out of your own house."  
Dean didn't see the small smile play across Gabriel's lips. "All right, if you want that, we can do that. I'll still set up things with the town."

When they were ready to go, Gabriel led Dean out to the front courtyard and towards the waiting helicopter.  
"You're not flying?" Dean asked.  
"Yeah, I'll be flying that. You kinda freaked out when I carried you last time." Gabriel told him. "Besides, how do you think the others got up here?"  
Dean stopped where he was.  
"What's wrong?" Gabriel asked.  
"Nothing. I'm just not that fond of flying is all."  
Gabriel though for a moment, we could drive, be a while, but we could do it."  
"How long?" Dean asked.  
"Around an hour. We'd still need to fly, but we'll be taking the helicopter to the garage and not all the way into town." Gabriel began to walk towards the helicopter again. "The garage is a little bit down the mountain, we won't be in the air long."  
Dean swallowed and followed Gabriel.

After a little bit in the air, they touched down in a field near a rather large building, about two stories tall, it reminds Dean of a parking garage, but nicer. They walk away from the helicopter towards the corrugated metal door and Gabriel enters a code into the pin pad. The light blinks green and the door rolls up allowing them to enter.

Gabriel reaches over to the wall next to the door and begins to flip some switches turning on the buildings lights. As the lights come on, Gabriel pulls the metal door closed and locks it. With the lights now on, Dean can see rows and rows of cars, all kinds of them in different colors, makes and models. He can't help the smile that spreads across his face.  
"Wow. Why do you have so many cars? And why couldn't we just take an elevator?" he asked.

Gabriel walked over to a large metal box on the wall and opened it. Inside were rows of keys.  
"Because then Hunters would have an easy way to get into my house. Besides, how many Hunters do you know that have helicopters?"  
Dean thought for a moment. "Two."  
"You're fucking kidding me." Gabriel tossed over his shoulder, eyes still on the keys in front of him.  
"Well one's actually a doctor and could use his job's helicopter, but the other one actually owns one." Dean admitted, eyes still on the cars.  
Gabriel finally picked a set, grabbed a garage door opener and shut the box. "So much for that genius plan." he mumbled to himself as he and Dean walked through the rows of cars.

"So why _do_ you have so many cars?" Dean asked.  
"People kept giving them to me as tribute, I had to do something, it's part of the reason of why I have the drive in." Gabriel replied as they walked.  
Dean looked around, feeling a little like a kid in a candy store, when he saw something familiar. Weaving through a couple of rows, Dean stood in front of a black Impala.  
"You have an Impala? Dude, this looks just like my car!"  
Gabriel snorted. "'Looks like' nothing, this _is_ your car." He walked over to the passenger side and tossed Dean the keys. "Wanna drive?"  
"Are you serious?" Dean asked, catching the keys.  
"Yeah, get in." Gabriel opened his door and sat in the car.

Dean got in and just sat for a moment before turning to Gabriel and asking, "How did my car get up here? And how did you know which one?"  
"The townspeople saw you driving it and one of them drove it up here for me."  
"And it's been here this whole time?" Dean asked.  
"Yeah. Are you going to drive or not?" Gabriel asked in return  
Dean started the car and smiled when she rumbled to life. Gabriel laughed softly. "You two are so cute, you look like you just found your lost puppy." He grinned and pointed to the left. "Front garage door is that way. When you get to the end of the row, take another left and follow the signs."  
Dean did and with the push of a button, he and Gabriel were soon on their way to Mistletoe.

The drive to town was uneventful, spent in a combination of awkward small talk and even more awkward bouts of silence. But when they got to town, Gabriel got down to business.  
"Okay, let's see about getting you laid." he said, clapping his hands. "Let's drive around, I'll give you a tour."  
"I've seen the town." Dean pointed out.  
"I know that, but it's the quickest way to check things out."  
They cruised down Main Street, Gabriel pointing things out while making note of who caught Dean's eye.  
"See that flower shop? That's where Claire works. I heard you rocked her world like three times when she was with us."  
Dean blushed when Gabriel asked if there was any reason why they should ask Claire again.  
"I... have a thing for hot Asian chicks." he mumbled.  
"What? You mean I could have been a hot looking Asian girl this entire time?" Gabriel teased. He's not sure what to call the noise Dean makes, but it it's kinda like a strangled squeak.

"Can you do that?" Dean asked.  
" _Hellooo_ , you've seen my true form, its about yay tall, has scales and am impressive wing span." Gabriel rattled off. "This," he guestured to his body. "is for dealing with people face to face."  
"So you're saying that you can change your sex?" Dean asked.  
"Human gender is... limiting. The parts don't matter to most dragons, but I like this body. I've had it for a very long time and have had a lot of experiences in it. It's like a favorite suit, I guess you could say." Gabriel explained.

They were waiting at a crosswalk when Dean saw her. She stepped into the street to cross in front of them and Dean's jaw dropped when he saw her, instantly tuning out what Gabriel was saying. Gabriel stopped talking and saw what had Dean's attention so thoroughly. A rather beautiful woman of Indian descent crossed in front of the car. Her walk was a cross between a strut and a lioness stalking a wounded gazelle. She knew what she wanted, how to get it and looked hot doing it. She was dressed in business attire, a black skirt cut just above her knees, red sleeveless blouse and black heels. Gabriel looked at her, looked back at Dean and smiled.  
"Oh, you like _her_ huh?"  
"I, I, I, um yeah." Dean admitted, a bit flustered at being caught staring so blatantly.  
Gabriel's smile broadened and he leaned out the window, giving a loud wolf whistle to get the woman's attention.

She stopped before she reached the end of the crosswalk and looked over at them.  
"Baby, are you a parking ticket? Because you've got 'fine' written all over you." Gabriel told her.  
Dean inhaled and nearly choked, Gabriel wasn't hitting on her with cheesy pick up lines, was he?  
Her eyes narrowed as she walked over to the Impala and leaned down to see inside it. Dean caught a glimpse down her blouse, she was wearing a lacy red and black bra.  
"What do you want Gabriel?" she asked, glancing from him to Dean and back to Gabriel.  
"Not much." Gabriel replied. He went on to explain that Dean was due to start his heat soon and that they were looking for those willing to help Dean through it.

Kali snorted. "What's wrong Gabriel, can't get it up?"  
Dean coughed and tried not to laugh as he breathed.  
"It works just fine, thank you. We're just looking for something to spice things up a bit, for a play toy or two." Gabriel said. "We haven't-"  
"I'm feeling a little shy?" Dean offered  
Kali snickered. "Aw poor baby, did you snag yourself a virgin, Gabriel? Is that why you're going through all this?"  
"I am not!" Dean shot back, glaring at Kali.  
"No, no, no, dear," tisked Kali. "not mortal women. A dragon virgin. There's nothing quite like the first time a mortal experiences a dragon."   
"Yep." Gabriel chimed in. "Once you go dragon, you can't stop braggin'."   
Dean turned a new shade of red.  
"Pity. It's been nearly a thousand years since I've had a good virgin." Kali replied with a smirk. "You are truly a lucky man Gabriel."

"Tell me about it. Remember the crusades and being able to roast knights in their armor? A virgin tied to a tree every month." Gabriel sighed with nostalgia. "So what are you doing here anyway?" Gabriel asked.  
"Speak for yourself, India was always more welcoming of dragons. And I'm here to do a bit of shopping, need to pick up some ingredients that I can only get around here."  
"Oh. So I take it that's a no on the hot threesome we could have with Dean? You know we could show him a really good time." Gabriel asked.

"God, is this how you asked everyone last time?" Dean asked. _I'm going to murder him._ he thought.  
"Nah, last time I just put up a notice on the bulletin board in the town hall. This is a lot more fun." Gabriel told him.  
"I don't doubt that we could, but I'm going to have to decline, sorry Gabriel." Kali said, standing back up.  
"Well if you change your mind, you know how to call me." Gabriel said. He and Kali said their goodbyes and she went back to her shopping, her heels clicking on the sidewalk as she left.  
"Yeah, it's always fun watching her walk away." Gabriel grinned.  
"Are you really a thousand years old?" Dean asked.  
"I'm older then that. I've lived for a very long time Dean. Let's see about lunch, I'm starving."  
Dean let the abrupt change of subject go, he wasn't really sure if he wanted to know just how old Gabriel was, or not.

This time Dean is awake when the group of volunteers shows up. It's a smaller group this time, only about a dozen people. Dean did ask Claire to come back, along with a few others, and she's the first one he grabs for a very long afternoon in his bedroom.

It wasn't working. Well it was, but it isn't like it was last time. Last time, Dean had spent a week in carnal debauchery with several different people, more then once with some of them. This time, it's all of a day and a half before he's... he doesn't want to say bored, but it just feels like he's just going through the motions. And while this gets the job done and he's not hearing any complaints, it's just not as much fun as it was last time.  
"Go ahead and go, tell the others I won't be needing them for the rest of the day." he dismissed his partner and went into the bathroom for a shower. Things are easy to ignore for now while awake and he should have enough control to be able to sleep with no problem.

Famous last words. Dean sat straight up in bed, a moan on his lips, and his body burning up. The dream he was having evaporates into a foggy mist the moment his eyes open, a flash of steaming water in a tub, the feel of a pair of hands caressing him. A soft laugh and someone's mouth kissing the skin of his neck below his ear. Nothing sexual had happened in the dream, the skin to skin contact and the overwhelming feeling of being loved and desired above all else is enough to drive Dean mad.  
Either actually insane or very horny, Dean can't tell which would be worse, but at least the latter could be taken care of very easily.

A pair of loose fitting pyjama bottoms and a t-shirt make it easier for Dean to leave his room and walk to his den. Most of the volunteers are asleep this time of night, but there are a few on night duty, should Dean need anything. A few of them looked at Dean while he stood in the doorway, eyes glancing at one and then moving onto another, never looking at any of them for very long. A sniff of the air confirmed it, none of them were what he wanted. What he wanted was somewhere else in the house, so Dean set off to find it.

A search of his wing and downstairs yielded nothing, the only place he hadn't looked was Gabriel's rooms. Dean walked down the hall towards the den and bedroom, pausing to look in the empty den before knocking on the bedroom doors and going in. Dean stayed in the open doorway, unlike his room, Gabriel's door opened into a sitting room, not just a bedroom.  
"Gabriel?" he called, looking around the room. It was decorated in shades of green and gold and had a stone fireplace with a handful of furniture scattered about. The room was only lit by firelight, the shadows of objects flickering back and forth on the walls. The fire itself was rather large and heat poured off it. None of it seemed to bother Gabriel as he crouched in front of it in his boxers, skin glowing with sweat, and his hand in the flames.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked coming into the room. Gabriel's head snapped around so hard, Dean's surprised he didn't have whiplash. Gabriel didn't answer, instead he launches himself at Dean, scrambling off the rug and over a few chairs to get to him. The force of Gabriel running into him makes Dean stagger back and they stumble back into the hall, only stopping when Dean hits the wall. Gabriel crowded in close to Dean, breathing in the scent of his mate.  
"You shouldn't be here. I can't keep myself completely in check." he rumbled, nose pressing into Dean's neck. "You need to leave. _Now_." Gabriel's eyes flashed in warning, his need to protect Dean and his desire for him at war inside him.

Dean shivered and shook his head. "No. I-"  
"You what, Dean." Gabriel hissed, doing his damnest to resist the part of him that was screaming for him to claim his mate already.  
"I need to be with you." Dean whispered. "I _want_ to be with you."  
Gabriel growled loudly, needing only to hear that before dragging his mate back into his room, using Dean's body to slam the door shut before kissing him senseless against it.  
"You sure about this? Because once we start this, there is no going back." Gabriel asked.  
Dean nodded and Gabriel yanked him away from the door, kissing and licking any bit of skin he could get his mouth on, hands touching and caressing the parts he couldn't.

The pair stumbled through the room, neither paying much attention to where they were going, but Gabriel tried to steer them towards the bedroom before they fell to the rabbit fur rug in front of the fireplace, Dean straddling Gabriel.  
"Here's good." Gabriel quickly said, pulling at the fabric of Dean's shirt, before giving up and tearing it down the middle.  
"Here's fine." Dean agreed, shrugging out of the shirt. "You never told me why your hand was in the fire." He nipped along Gabriel's jawline.  
"You want to talk about that now?" Gabriel asked, hands tracing down Dean's back, grinning when his mate shivered and thrust against him.  
"You had your hand actually in the fire. I want to know why."  
"To take the edge off. The pain helps me focus and keep this," Gabriel thrust against Dean's body, pressing his erection against him. "at least a little under control."  
"Was it like that last time?" Dean asked.  
"No. I seriously needed to get laid, but no need for the fire. I was far enough away." Gabriel kissed Dean again and rolled them so that he was on top. "And not that this isn't fun, but I can think of other things I'd rather be doing."

While the thought of sex with Gabriel was still a little scary, Dean knew it was what he wanted and what they needed. He pulled Gabriel down and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Gabriel smiled at this and deepened the kiss just a little, but let Dean run things at his own pace, sighing when Dean ran his hands up and down his back, arching into the touch. Dean's hands ran across his shoulder blades and stopped, fingers exploring the spot. It felt like a thorn was sticking out of Gabriel's back.  
"It's the tips of my wings." Gabriel explains, kissing his way down Dean's neck. "Normally dragon's wings show during a heat cycle, it's a sign we're ready to be mated."  
"Let me see them." Dean said, his fingers plucking at the tips.  
"Seriously?" Gabriel asked. "I wasn't sure how'd you react to them."  
"I've seen them before, when we first met remember? I want to see them now."

Gabriel sighed softly and nodded before sitting up. Gabriel rolled his shoulders, twitching them and his wings slid out, stretching behind him. They were blue with a gold membrane and Gabriel smiled as they moved and flexed behind him.  
"Well?" he asked.  
"I like them, look just like I remembered." Dean replied.  
Gabriel smiled and leaned down to kiss him.

The fire splayed their shadows across the wall as they got to know each other and what they each needed from the other. Clothing soon disappeared and Gabriel growled at Dean's scent, wanting nothing more than to claim him and make Dean his. But Gabriel held back and instead kissed his way down Dean's body, nipping every once in a while at the skin while one of his hands slowly wrapped around Dean's penis stroking him. Dean gasped and shuddered at the touch, thrusting into Gabriel's hand. Gabriel smirked and stroked again, squeezing slightly on the upstroke.  
"Like that?"  
Dean nodded. "Very."  
"Well then, you're gonna love this." Gabriel slid down Dean's legs and wrapped his mouth around the head of Dean's cock, sucking hard and fast, his tongue flicking across the head. Dean's cry of pleasure is loud and completely welcome as Gabriel starts to nurse and suck on him.

Dean's not even aware of what he's saying, just that what Gabriel's doing feels really good and he doesn't want it to stop. But it does as Gabriel pulls off him with a pop and backs up.  
"Where are you going?" Dean asked, grasping at Gabriel's hand.  
"To get the lube. I'll be right back."  
"Um..." Dean's grip tightened on Gabriel's hand.  
"What's wrong?" Gabriel asked.  
Dean closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. "Is it male dragons that have a barbed penis or is it the females that have barbs inside them?" he asked, feeling stupid as he did.

Gabriel snickered and then laughed out loud. "Oh God! Are they still telling that one? That one's been around since the 1700's." He moved so that Dean could see the rest of his body and thrust his hips. "Does it look like I have barbs?"  
"Ah, no?"   
"Damn right. Now I'll be right back." Gabriel soon came back to the rug, bottle in hand. "Just relax, it'll be fine." He set the bottle down on the floor next to them and nuzzled the crook of Dean's neck, kissing him until the tension began to leave Dean and the heat took over.

Dean rolled over in his sleep and bumped into something. The something shifted and moved as Dean cracked open an eye.  
"Morning sleepy head."  
Dean opened his eyes all the way and looked around. He was in bed with Gabriel. What was he doing in bed with Gabriel?   
"What are we doing here?" Dean asked, sitting up and yawning.  
"We moved into here to sleep, much more comfortable." Gabriel replied as he stretched and got up. "I was beginning to wonder of you were ever gonna wake up." he said, walking across to the bathroom. "I'm grabbing a shower, you're more than welcome to join me."

 

**A Few Years Later**

The room was a cheap, dingy little thing, the table he was at had come second hand and he could tell it had seen better days, it had needed a take out menu shoved under a leg to keep the table from wobbling too badly. Sam's fingers flew across his laptop as he typed. After a few minutes he hit save and closed what he had been doing. What he had been looking for wasn't here, it was time to go. Sam checked a few news sites he frequented and after a few clicks, stopped to read an article.  
"Local Dragon and Mate to Wed." he read out loud. Could this be what he was looking for? Sam began to read. He smiled when he ran across names and a picture. It was.  
"So you really did find a dragon. Good." Sam sought out directions and shut down his computer.

It was a nice day in Mistletoe, the rain had stopped earlier in the week and the sun was out, drying everything off. Dean marked another thing off the seemingly never ending list of wedding plans as he stepped out of the flower shop. While almost everything was being taken care of in house, (mainly the food and the cake, Annabelle was really outdoing herself), the flowers were coming from both the garden and the shop in town. What was next? Dean was looking at the list of errands to run today, when he heard someone call his name.  
"Dean!"  
Dean looked up from the list, a grin on his face. It immediately turned to shock as he saw who had called his name.

It was Sam. Sam was walking towards him only to pick up speed once he saw that he had Dean's attention.

"Sam?" Dean whispered. "Sam!" he shouted, closing the gap between them and pulling his little brother into a hug once they were close enough. "What are you doing here?"  
"Saw the article, wanted to see you." Sam replied. "That's okay, right?"  
Dean pulled away from Sam. "Is that okay? Of course it's okay!" He hugged Sam again. "You hungry? Have you eaten yet?"  
Sam shook his head. "Not yet."  
"I know a place, c'mon. Best food in town." Dean grabbed Sam's arm. "Man, look at you. You're like the freaking Hulk." he said, leading Sam down the street.

Lunch at the diner was spent catching up and over the meal Dean asked Sam what happened when Sam went back to John. Sam's eyes darkened for a second. "Can we not talk about that?" he asked, fingers tightening briefly around his fork.  
"Okay. I really am sorry though. For leaving you, I mean. I could barely take care of myself, let alone you, you deserved better than that." Dean said.  
"You hurt me. How did I deserve that? All I wanted was to help." Sam drank from his glass.  
"I know. And you didn't." Dean looked down at his plate.  
"It's okay. I know that now and you seem a lot happier." Sam said.  
They were both happier to move on to other subjects and when the waitress came back, ordered dessert.

"How's John." Dean asked quietly during dessert.  
The bite Sam had just taken turned to ash in his mouth. He swallowed and put down the fork. "He's dead." he said softly. "Heart attack."  
"I'm surprised he had one." Dean snorts, pushing his dessert around.  
Sam chuckled. "I probably shouldn't be laughing at that, but it's funny." He sighed and picked up his fork. "After the whole fiasco with you, he because really obsessed with dragons and he blamed you for everything that went wrong. He got scary."

Dean wasn't really sure what to say. How exactly did you say that you were glad that someone was dead?  
"I'm really happy to see you Sam. I always wondered what happened." He took a sip from his glass and asked Sam what he was doing now.  
"I travel. I work with dragons and dragon relations."  
"Is that how you found me?" Dean asked.  
Sam nodded. "Yeah. I'll admit to be rather shocked about it, since the last time I saw you, all you wanted was to be left alone."  
Dean laughed and smiled. "I know it shocked the hell out of me too. You can blame Gabriel for all of that."  
"What's he like?" Sam asked.  
Dean's smile broadened at that question and he proceeded to fill Sam in and just generally gush like a teenage girl.

At the end of their meal, Dean asked Sam how long he was staying in town. "I'd really like it if you could come to the wedding, man. It'd mean a lot to me and I want you to meet Gabriel too."  
"I'm gonna be here a while, I've earned a break." Sam replied.  
"Awesome." Dean grinned.  
"You're welcome. And I've got something in the car for you, a wedding present I guess you could call it."  
They paid and left the dinner. Sam walked back to his car and hunted around in it for a couple of minutes.  
"Ah ha! Here they are!" He pulled out a bag handing it to Dean. "Do you think Gabriel will like these? I got them as part of a thank you and I'm not a big fan."  
Dean reached into the bag and pulled out an expensive box of chocolates. "Wow, these are really good. Yeah, Gabriel will love them. Thank you."   
"Not a problem.I need to check into a motel, I'll let you get back to what you were doing." Sam pulled out his keys. "Anywhere good in town?"  
Dean nodded and gave Sam directions to one of the motels in town. They made plans to get together in a day or two, exchanged numbers, and Dean went back to his errands after watching Sam drive away.

Dean walked into the house, happy to be home and out of the air, he was certain that he'd never get used to flying.  
"Gabriel?" he called, taking off his boots and laying the list down.  
"In the library!" he heard Gabriel shout and walked towards the library.  
"Hey. How was- Wow, what is all of this?" Dean asked as he came in and saw all of the gifts scattered about the room. He pretty sure that this, is what will fill the shelves of one of the third floor rooms where Gabriel's treasure was stored.  
"Wedding presents, tributes for both of us from the town and a few other places." Gabriel replied from the sofa he was draped over. "Nice, huh?"  
"Very. You gonna have room for it?" Dean asked, kissing Gabriel hello.  
"Mmm, get back here, can't have just one." Gabriel pulled Dean back for another kiss. "And yes, I have room."  
Dean moves Gabriel's legs aside and sits of the sofa. "You'll never guess who I ran into in town today."  
"Who?" Gabriel tossed his legs over Dean's lap.  
"Sam."  
"Your _brother_? That is the Sam you're talking about, right?"  
Dean nodded. "Yeah. He was nearby and saw the article and wanted to say hi. I invited him to the wedding, if that's okay."  
"Yeah, that's fine, we've still got time. How is he?" Gabriel replied, and pushed at Dean's hands with a foot.  
Dean began to rub Gabriel's feet. "He's fine, out on his own. John's dead, Sam said it was a heart attack."  
Gabriel didn't say anything just inclined his head in acknowledgement.  
"Oh! That reminds me." Dean said, snapping his fingers.  
"Someone's death reminds you of something?" Gabriel dead panned.  
Dean smacked the foot he was rubbing and reached for the bag Sam had given him. "Shut up. Look at what Sam gave as a present." He pulled the box out and showed it to Gabriel.  
"Ooh! Gimmie!" Gabriel reached out for the box. "Your brother has good taste. You should see the box Kali sent us from San Francisco. Chocolate, tea, fucking awesome sourdough bread, yes I saved you some, and several bolts of silk."  
"After dinner." Dean said, pulling back the box from Sam.

Later that night after dinner, Gabriel sat happily in bed with several of the gifts he had picked up. Most of the wedding gifts and tributes had been moved to the third floor for safe keeping, but Gabriel had dragged his favorites into bed with him. Dean sighed to himself as he got ready for bed listening to Gabriel talk about various presents and what he thought about them. Mainly that they were awesome and that his collection looked really pretty now.  
"My stomach kinda hurts though." Gabriel rubbed his stomach as they turned off the table lamps and crawled under the sheets.  
"You ate too much, that's why." Dean said, curling up next to him.  
Gabriel frowned and shook his head. "I don't think so, it was no more then I normally eat." Considering that Gabriel ate enough to feed a small army, that was saying a lot.  
"You'll feel better in the morning." Dean said, gently rubbing Gabriel's stomach.

In the middle of the night, Dean was woken up by a horrible retching sound, followed by a wet coughing noise. He sat up and turned on the light, seeing Gabriel sitting up in bed.  
"Gabriel, are you okay?" he asked, before the smell of vomit reached his nose. Vomit mixed with something else.  
"No." Gabriel managed to say before coughing again. This time Dean sees the fine spray of blood fall across the sheets and realizes that _that's_ what he's smelling the scent of vomit and blood.   
"Call Tessa." Gabriel chokes out before another coughing fit hits him. 

The next several minutes are a blur for Dean. He calls Tessa and the house doctor, Tessa is the first to show. Gabriel is hot to the touch and complaining that his stomach feels all knotted up. Both Tessa and the doctor agree that Gabriel has been poisoned and Tessa arranges for the helicopter to be prepped for take off.  
"What's he eaten lately?" the doctor asked Dean on the way outside.  
"We both had the same thing for dinner, but he's been collecting gifts and tribute all day, I know he's eaten some of it already." The remains of what Gabriel had dragged to bed with him had been shoved aside or walked over, Dean vaguely thinks that Gabriel will not be pleased about that as they ascended into the air.

The helicopter ride seemed to take forever and was over in a blink of an eye. Dean remembers them radioing ahead to the hospital and the doctors rushing forward and taking Gabriel in. The next thing he knows is that a nurse is telling him that he can see Gabriel now, and that Tessa's taking care of the paperwork.  
"We've pumped his stomach and given him a wide spectrum antibiotic for the poison. He's stable but weak right now." she said, leading Dean to Gabriel's room. Dean nods distractedly, his mind already in Gabriel's room. The moment Dean sees him, everything else is gone, nothing else matters to him but Gabriel. Dean sits in the chair next to the bed, taking Gabriel's hand in his.  
"Can I get you anything?" the nurse asked.  
"No, I'm fine." Dean replied. "Thank you by the way, I don't know if I said that earlier."  
"You're welcome, just call the nurse's station if you need anything." she replied, pointing out the call button.  
Dean nodded and thanked her again, this time feeling a little less freaked out.

"I'm sorry sir, but you can't go in there. Family and close friends only."  
"But I-"  
"I'm sorry, you can't."

The commotion outside is what wakes Dean out of the catnap he was taking. He got up from his chair and went to see what was going on. Sam was at the nurse's station and was for all intents and purposes, losing an argument to get beyond it.  
"It's okay, he's my brother, you can let him through." Dean said as he came up to the station. The nurses let Sam pass and Dean soon had his arms full of Sam.  
"Man, am I glad to see you." Dean led Sam back to Gabriel's room.   
"So how's the dragon?" Sam asked.  
"He's been poisoned. He's weak but stable." Dean replied. "What are you doing here? How'd you know I was here, I haven't even gotten the chance to call you." Dean felt for his phone. "I don't even _have_ a phone to call you." They entered Gabriel's room.  
"Everyone saw its helicopter land and it wasn't five minutes before rumors started flying. The entire town knew in fifteen. Do they know how the dragon was poisoned?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "No, or who could have done it."  
"Too bad." Sam looked at Dean. "You look like hell. Go get some coffee."  
Dean shook his head. 'I don't know. What if Gabriel needs me. What if he wakes up?"  
"Don't worry about it. I'll watch it for you. If it does wake up, I'll come running and get you." Sam replied. He started moving Dean toward the door. Dean begrudgingly conceded.  
"Okay, you're right. I need coffee, we were asleep when this all happened."  
"Go, I'll take care of everything." Sam said smiling at him.

Dean shuffled down the hall towards the waiting room, his mind brimming with worry and thoughts of Gabriel.

_"Oh God, I hope its okay. I don't know what I'd do without the dragon. I remember when it first grabbed me and how damn scared I was of being in the air like that."_

Dean rounded the corner and stopped mid stride. _"Wait. Why am I calling Gabriel an 'it'? I haven't done that at all since Lawrence. I'm starting to sound like a...a Hunter."_ Suddenly, everything Sam had been saying came through it startling clarity.

_"So how's the dragon?" "Everyone saw its helicopter land." " I'll watch it for you."_

He had never once referred to Gabriel by name or used any other word that would humanize him. Dean spun around, all thoughts of coffee gone, fear gripping his heart and making his breath come in gasps, as he sprinted back towards Gabriel's room.

Sliding into the doorway, the scene that greeted him was a nightmare come true. Sam was standing next to Gabriel's bed, his back to Dean. He was hunched over whispering something in Gabriel's ear, the six inch stiletto in his right hand placed in between the sixth and seventh true rib at just such an angle to pierce Gabriel's heart. An angle and blade that Dean recognized as being from John. Dean quickly closed the half dozen or so steps to get to Gabriel's bedside, a scream of sheer terror, panic and and fear coming out of his throat. Sam turned to see Dean coming at him in a tackle, the two of them hitting the wall and falling to the floor.

As they fell, Gabriel jerked awake and up, his hands gripping his chest where the blade had been driven to its hilt, a scream of agony rapidly turning into a roar that no human throat could make. He thrashed and contorted in agony, rolling off the bed to his left and knocking over his IV stand and several of the monitors. Silence filled the room except for the single steady monotone whine of a flat line. Dean crawled to his knees, hands on the bed's edge, eyes on the monitor and filling with tears.

"Gabriel?" he whispered as the sound of the machine drowned out everything, even the PA echoing in the distance.  
 _"He's gone. My bond mate is dead."_ Crushing despair washed over Dean, the shock causing his breath to come up short, when a sudden muscular arm snaked itself around his neck locking him in a choke hold. Dean realized that this was also from John. A choke hold could be used to snap someone's neck quickly and with little pain or to make them suffer. This was the one to make them suffer. Dean clawed and pulled at Sam's bicep, barely moving his brother's arm, enough to gasp out "Why?"

"Why?" Sam snarled. _"Why?_ I'll tell you why, Dean. It's because you sent me to hell. You see Dean, when I went back, I wasn't accepted. I wasn't the prodigal son kidnapped by a monster. I was a _traitor_ Dean. I was _worse_ than the monsters because I'd betrayed my own species and the council put me through hell for that."

Dean's vision began to turn black at the edges, red spots flashing before his eyes as Sam ranted. 

"For _three years_ , three years Dean, they locked me in a small box. No windows, no school, just torture. They _tortured_ me for three years, Dean. I begged them to stop. I cried and pleaded, told them anything I could think of to make them stop.So I could get free, to find you. Until one day, I finally broke and I didn't care anymore. And finally after all that time, Dad came to me and he asked if I was sorry. And you know what Dean? I was sorry. Sorry I'd betrayed my species, sorry I'd felt pity for you, _sorry you were ever born!_ And now, I'm about to rectify all my mistakes."

Finally, as Dean's sight began to totally fade out, he managed to call out weakly with the last of his breath. "Gabriel."

Sam laughed to himself. "It's over. It's finally over. Just a few more seconds and I can be done." Sam was so wrapped up in finishing off Dean, that he failed to notice the slight vibrations running through the floor. It wasn't until he heard the sounds of fabric ripping that he realized something was wrong. As he looked over to the bed, Sam saw a growing mound of scales and a semi transformed hand turning into claws reach over and pull itself up as Gabriel finished shifting into his true form, expanding to fill the entire room, except for the corner that Sam had crab walked himself back into after letting go of Dean.  
"No! You're dead, I killed you! I shoved a knife into your heart, why won't you die?" Sam screamed.

Gabriel looked around the room, his chest hurt, every time he breathed it hurt and bled. His mate had called for him. His mate was hurt and needed him. There he was, that _insect_ that had hurt his mate, shouting at him. Gabriel didn't bother with listening to what it was saying, it wasn't important, he had to find Dean. Dean was curled around one of his front legs, not moving at all. Gabriel growled and looked back at Sam. That thing had killed his mate. _That thing had taken his mate away from him._ It had to die. Gabriel drew his head back to strike, laughing internally as Sam raised his arms to try and shield his head. Funny how that never worked. With a final lunge, Gabriel's head shot down, bisecting Sam at the waist. Gabriel withdrew and snapped twice, crunching Sam's bones and then swallowed. As the adrenalin wore off, Gabriel lowered his head and curled up around Dean's body, closing his eyes.

Dean bolted up in a panic. "Gabriel!" he croaked, his movement setting off the heart monitor next to his bed. "Sam, don't-"  
A pair of hands pushed down on Dean's shoulders, forcing him back to the bed. "No! Gabriel, he's-"  
"He's all right Dean." Dean paid no attention to the voice trying to reassure him, all that mattered was getting to Gabriel.  
"Dean!"  
Dean was finally able to focus and realized that the voice belonged to Tessa.  
"Tessa? What, what's going on?" He lifted his hand and really looked around. "What am I doing in a hospital bed?" he rasped. "And could I get some water?"

Tessa poured a glass and offered it to Dean after putting in a straw. "It's okay Dean, everything's fine. Gabriel's in surgery, he'll be fine."  
Dean stopped drinking. "Why is he in surgery? I need to see him Tessa."  
"The knife used nicked his heart, and punctured one of his lungs.You'll be able to see him, but not now, you need to rest." Tessa replied.  
"No, Tessa, now." Dean tried to get out of his bed.  
Tessa grabbed for the morphine button, punching it to activate the speed of the drip. "Not now Dean, you need to sleep. The minute you can, the doctors will let you see Gabriel." She pressed Dean back into the bed and held him until he went under from the morphine.

The next afternoon Dean woke up as the nurse came in to check on him. Dean looked at her as she checked his chart and made some notes as she looked over the monitors.  
"Renee?" he asked.  
She smiled. "Hello Dean. How are you feeling?"  
"Fine, I guess. What about Gabriel, how's he?" Dean said.  
"He's good, surgery went fine. He woke up about an hour ago if you want to see him."  
"Please."  
Renee said she'd see what she could do.

In a couple of hours, Dean was in Gabriel's room in the ICU, arms wrapped around him, hugging him tight.  
"Ow. Ow, ow, ow." Gabriel hissed.  
"Sorry!" Dean pulled away, looking at the wound. The doctors had done an excellent job of patching Gabriel up, there would be very little scarring.  
"It's okay." Gabriel replied, hiding the wince.  
"I'm going to _kill_ him." Dean growled.  
"You can't." Gabriel told him.  
"Yes, I can. He is so dead." Dean said stubronly.  
"You can't." Gabriel repeated. "He's kind of already dead." he finished.  
"What?" Dean asked. "How?"  
"Um... I sort of _ate_ him? And I'm sorry?" Gabriel stated in a questioning manner.  
"Oh." All the wind just flew right of Dean's sails. "Don't apologize, it's better than he deserved." Dean gave Gabriel a brief kiss.  
"I'm still sorry, he was your brother." Gabriel said afterwards.  
"No, I lost my brother a long time ago, that was a man I didn't even know." Dean replied softly.

Epilogue: A Month Later.

Dean and Tessa entered Gabriel's room, Dean sitting next to his bed. "Hey."  
Gabriel smiled. "Hey yourself. Hi Tessa."   
She grinned at Gabriel and asked how he felt. "Good. Very good actually."  
He pulled Dean close for a kiss. "What's wrong?" he asked when Dean didn't respond.  
"Nothing. We're supposed to be married today, that's all."  
Gabriel thought about it. Dean was right, today was their wedding day. "We can still get married." he told Dean.  
"How? Almost everything's at the house." Dean asked.  
Gabriel pulled the phone off the side table and into his lap. "Watch and be amazed."

For the next hour Gabriel made call after call, talking to everyone that he could get a hold of. Instead of the big wedding that they had planned, it would be a smaller one, with only those close to them invited. All the food was done, the cake was waiting, it just needed to be divided up for ease of transport. Most of the people attending today, would be the house staff. Gabriel made the beginnings of party plans with the kitchen staff, for all the people that they had invited to come at first; it would be held on a later date to celebrate Dean and Gabriel's marriage.  
"Things are being taken care of here. You, go off to the tailors. Your suit is still there and waiting for you." Gabriel told Dean in between phone calls.

Before Dean could object Tessa had pulled him out the door and away from the room.  
"I get the distinct feeling that I'm being set up." Dean mumbled.  
"In a manner of speaking. Gabriel's been planning this since the doctor's told him how long it will take to heal and that they wanted to keep him for a bit of observation." Tessa admitted. "Just act surprised when we get back and Gabriel's going to be so happy when he can get out."  
Dean nodded and they were off to the tailors to pick up his suit.

"You look great, don't worry about it." Tessa reassured Dean as they came back inside the hospital. Dean tugged on his collar as they walked back to Gabriel's room.  
"Stop that!" Tessa slapped away his hands and pulled him aside, straightening his collar and tie and looking him over. "Yep, fine." The gray suit jacket and pants with a white shirt and silver tie looked wonderful on Dean. Now, if he could just stop fidgeting long enough to get married, everything would be great.  
"You sure?" Dean asked. He had been feeling jumpy since he put on the suit.  
"For the last time, yes. Now let's go get you married." Tessa said in exasperation and steered Dean back towards Gabriel's room.

Tessa knocked on Gabriel's door and poked her head in. "Everything ready here?" The room was a flurry of activity. The Justice of the Peace, Jo, and a couple other servants had decorated the room with flowers, snapdragons mostly.  
"Almost." Jo called from behind the curtain around Gabriel's bed. "Does Dean have his flower?"  
"No. Where is it?" Tessa replied. "Wait, is that it on the table?" Tessa came in and picked up one of the containers holding a red snapdragon.  
"The red one? Yeah." Jo said. "Gabriel's almost ready, go give that to Dean."  
Tessa stepped back into the hall and fastened the flower to Dean's suit jacket  
"We're ready." Jo told them, poking her head out of the door.  
Dean swallowed and walked into the room and towards his future.

"You look good." Gabriel said softly taking Dean's hands.   
"You too." Where Dean's suit was gray, Gabriel's was powder blue shot through with gold thread in a filigree pattern. "And you're standing up." Dean smiled at that fact. "Thought the doctor's wanted you on bed rest."  
"They gave me the okay to start walking around yesterday, wanted it to be a surprise." Gabriel said.  
"It is."  
Gabriel smiled. "Good."  
"Are we ready to begin?" the Justice asked. When both Gabriel and Dean nodded, he began the ceremony.  
"Dearly beloved..."

The End.


End file.
